Beyond the Stars
by Pearlinprocess
Summary: Companion fic to "Beneath the Stars". Gaz tells Dib to go get lost one night, and that's exactly what he does. He decides to ask Zim to come along too, and having nothing better to do, the alien agrees. Will they be able to get along on their space road trip, or are they going to get themselves killed before Dib realizes just what Gaz had in store for him? ZADF, eventually ZADR.
1. Truce

Dib's head hung so low that his chin touched his collar. The things Gaz had said earlier that night... She'd said some messed up things to him before, but he'd always assumed that she was joking. He always assumed they could make it the 18 to 21 mandatory years they had to spend together as co-dependant siblings, and would even look out for each other when need be.

But tonight, she'd laid it all on the table. She said she'd hated him, that he was a nuisance, that he was insane and stupid at the same time, that she'd be better off if she didn't have to save his ass all the time, and Dib had been forced to reflect and realize that, he really had only ever saved Gaz from something he'd caused in the first place, and she was in fact the one saving him ninety percent of the time. Maybe she was right. But so was he, damn it. She couldn't understand. She was like his dad, just like all the other humans…

Just like the other humans… That had made him think about something else she had said.

"Why don't you just go fly off into a black hole with your little green boyfriend, space boy? Or go get mauled by those werewolves you're always chasing, I don't care, just go and never come back!"

Truth be told he had been considering trying to negotiate some kind of agreement with Zim for a while now. But he'd, until now, assumed that he was welcome on Earth, or at least in his home. But his father had given him the ultimatum of attending a strictly scientific college and pursuing a strictly scientific job, or being completely cut off from the family and it's funds upon his upcoming eighteenth birthday.

"I'm sorry son," He'd said, in a way that made it clear he wasn't sorry. "But if you want to be a paranormal investigator so bad, you can pay for the tuition on burger money. That is if you'll have enough left over after rent."

So obviously his dad didn't give much of a damn about him either. So maybe, just maybe, Earth wasn't where he belonged. He still loved the planet so much that it hurt, he loved the beauty and balance of nature that still existed on the planet, but hated what the overpopulation of dumb people was doing to it. He hated what those cruel moronic people did to each other. The good ones were so few and far between, and even most of them were hopeless simpletons.

He sighed in irritation remembering his first and so far only girlfriend, an unbelievably awkward relationship with his former classmate Gretchen. He'd begun dating her when she suddenly blossomed into a rather attractive young woman last year. Admittedly it was mostly for that reason that he'd dated her in the first place. She was pretty, but still socially awkward from being ugly for so many years, and she did still have those braces at the time.

But Dib had told her she was pretty despite the braces she was forced to wear, and made her so shy. On her part, she was a little slow, but she was a good listener. Dib could tell she only believed him half the time, and would never actually go out and participate in his paranormal excursions if she could help it, but he thought she was nice enough just for listening to his crazy-sounding stories, and not tell him she thought he was crazy. But the braces finally came off, and when they did she was immediately recruited by a modeling agency. She became conceited and mean, and dumped Dib for a hotter and infinitely duller guy.

So there was that. Basically the fight with Gaz was just the moldy whipped topping on the mudpie that was his godawful life. So it led him to think, maybe he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. And god knew Zim would never conquer Earth while he was around. So maybe some kind of negotiation could be met between them after all. He wasn't quite sure yet what kind, but he was thinking maybe he could convince the Irken to leave the planet and the smartest people on earth alone and simply kill off it's parasites? He didn't really want to hurt anyone, but since these same people would usually kill themselves one way or another, it was a worthy sacrifice for the more worthy. Eh, well, it was worth a try anyways.

So he slipped past the defenses of Zim's base with only breaking out into a light sweat. He made it down to the innards of the house, lightened of his bribe of chocolate to GIR. There he noticed Zim was talking to his leaders via the big screen. Dib hid to listen.

"So you see my Tallest, if I could simply be allowed some extra supplies this year, I'm sure I could have Earth conquered by this Earth summer! The Earth is going through an economic struggle right now due to a war, and it's the perfect time to weaken it for conquest! I just need some extra Irken dietary supplements, I'm afraid I ran out awhile ago, and although Earth sugar and carbohydrates are relatively safe to eat in small amounts, it's not at all as fulfilling or tasty as SUPERIOR," This word he suddenly screeched out, then immediately returned to normal. "Irken cuisine. Also, it'd be really super neat if I could get one of those awesome new Megalomegadoomers from the artillery catalog, the ones you don't have to plug in!"

Dib broke into a sweat at that. The absence of a plug would be a huge disadvantage to him!

Tallest Red sighed at that. Stupid catalogs, forever on every invader's mailing list, even when that invader wasn't even an invader anymore.

Tallest Purple proceeded to poke his cohort annoyingly. "Hey. Hey. Hey."

Red swatted his fingers away, knowing what he was going to say. "What?"

"If you don't tell him, I will." He warned. They'd had a talk about Zim a while ago. It had been funny, stringing him along all these years, and in complete truth, Red actually did start to hope Zim might someday turn into a decent invader when he noticed the little snot had gone through a surprisingly quick and dramatic growth spurt over the few short years on Earth. Now he was a mildly impressive height for an Irken, a few inches over five feet tall. He might even be as tall as the tallest Irken invaders. But he was still godawful at doing anything but mindless destroying, and it was getting old now. The Resisty was actually starting to put up a good fight recently, recruiting planets that hadn't yet been taken over for help. Irken resources were getting a bit less plentiful too, and the joke was now an expense. Purple had much less patience for Zim than Red. And Red only gave Zim any time of day for one reason. A reason he'd never even fully acknowledged… Until today.

Red nodded. "I'll do it…" He cleared his throat. "Zim. It's time we stopped all this. I know you know about the origins of your DNA. I knew too." Not as long as Zim had, but he'd figured it out after a while, and even though he still didn't want Zim anywhere near Irk or involved with their plans, he no longer wished him dead as he once had. But even if didn't wish death on the moron, he still didn't want anyone else knowing about Zim's origins, or anything about Zim. There was a reason they'd once brought Zim to the existence evaluation, because they questioned it. It seemed everything Zim touched was doomed. Which would be a good thing if they could just get it to work for the Irken empire instead of against it.

Red continued, "I know you know that I and a research scientist named Zirra were the two Irken's whose DNA was mixed to create you. But then you must also know," He added just as Zim's eyes began to widen with pride and delight at his admittance. "That you are FAR from the only one created from my DNA. Tall Irkens like myself are always selected first for that. I can't and won't treat you like you're special because of it. And besides that, even though you have some of my taller and therefore superior DNA, you only grew as tall as your maternal donor. But again, you're not the only one that turned out like that. So it's really because of your all too apparent incompetence at invading that I am forced to tell you, we cannot continue to support you as we have been any longer. You were supposed to be banished a long time ago, Zim. If not for pure luck you would have been dead a thousand times before. You're unbelievably prone to mayhem. I'm sorry Zim, but you're just a gigantic liability!"

Zim interrupted in desperation, "Please, my Tallest, I understand that I may have been a little awkward and clumsy as a young Irken, but I-"

Red interrupted back, and as his superior Zim had to back down. "Awkward and clumsy? Zim the amount of destruction you've caused cannot even be held in the same context as those two words! You've caused the death of two Tallest in your lifetime, and destroyed various portions of various planets, including your own! You are cursed somehow, I don't understand it, but you need to get it through your head that you'd be doing your race a huge favor by just staying away from us! I mean, really, you're not even the only Irken that's prone to being so awful at EVERYTHING-"

At this point Purple joined in. Just because Zim was Red's smeet didn't mean he couldn't address him too as a superior-ly tall Irken. Really the fact that Zim was Red's byproduct wasn't even supposed to matter. He didn't understand why Red gave Zim that extra leniency to begin with just because of that fact, given the vast amount of failures he tallied up, both in height and performance. But Red was right, he wasn't the only one either. "Yeah, there's Invader Pesto! I suppose there's a reason he got called Pesto, eh? Get it? Pest, o? Cause he's a pest! O!" It made perfect sense to Purple.

Red blinked, "I thought he was named after that mixed greens and nuts concoction that goes on pasta and sammiches and stuff?"

Purple blinked too. "Mmm. That sounds good right now." As carbs always did. So he barked at a shorter Irken nearby to get them a plate of sammiches with the green stuff on them. Then he continued, "But yeah, Invader Pesto! He's more in that awkward and clumsy stage you were just talking about. We sent him off to some planet we weren't sure existed like you too! And Invader Yoogli! Funny to note though," Here he eyed Red pointedly. "Both Invader Pesto and Invader Yoogli also share your DNA, Red…"

Red glared at him, "I do hope you're not suggesting that any defect the three might have stemmed anywhere but their maternal donors, Purple." He stated in a warning tone.

"Of course not." Purple smirked a tiny smirk. "Plenty of your -numerous- other smeets didn't turn out to be total failures."

Red growled and continued on, "ANYWAYS. I'll-" He glared back pointedly at Purple, then forged on, "I'll send you one last shipment of dietary supplements." He ignored the half-choked protest Purple coughed out. "But you'll need to make it last you a while, because from now on you're banished for good, Zim. You were supposed to be banished for good a long time ago."

"PLEASE," Zim eyes began to collect a strange clear and light-pink liquid. "My Tallests, I beg you to reconsider! There is so much I could do for the Irken Empire! I don't know what I would do if I couldn't serve the Irken race that I am so devoted to!" The love and longing for a reason for his existence showed clearly in the smaller alien's wavering voice.

"ZIM!" Red shouted, trying to hide the fact that, deep down, it caused him pain to do this too. Purple couldn't understand. He was one of nearly half the population of Irkens that had lost not only gender identity, but the ability to feel the emotions that had once been more important to the race than it was now. But of course technological advances had long wiped out the need for them, beyond that of the issue of loyalty to the race… Romantic love was now an embarrassing taboo when once, far enough back into the past of the Irken race, it was enjoyed.

Red knew Purple and a few of the closest members of the Armada knew that he himself had indulged in the occasional romantic fling with a few other Irkens, mostly females, as he preferred them, but of course since he was Tallest it was never brought against him. Purple did not do sex or romance. He employed a small personal team of Irken masseurs, but they were strictly for the relief of tension. Purple had never kissed another, felt longing in their equivalent of the heart for another, and therefore he did not know what it felt like to be attached to another that shared your DNA, to want the best for them just as you wished for the best for yourself.

But Red also understood the logic his cohort and their type employed, how emotions could get the better of an Irken and cause them to do foolish, detrimental things. Things like supporting a crazy, cursed little Irken that was supposed to be banished. So he held his paternal feelings in check and addressed the younger, shorter Irken. "The most considerate thing you could do for your species and our agenda would be to STAY on that little mudball you landed on and quit bothering us! Or better yet, you could go get lost and disappear completely like your fraternal unit Invader Yoogli!"

Zim gasped at that, hurt all-too evident in the choking sound. Even though Irkens had much more subdued emotions than they used to, they were still loyal to one another. No Irken would be left to die by enemy hands unless there was good reason to do so. That was the reason why, even though Invader Tenn had failed her mission, they'd still expended the resources to save her. The fact that she was also one of Red's smeets also got her in good favor. And it was the reason why putting Zim before the existence evaluator had been a last resort. One Red truthfully didn't want to have to repeat now that he realized Zim was his offspring. But Zim had to think the opposite was the case, or else he would just keep crawling back.

Red averted his eyes from the smaller Irken, who's eyes were wide in shock, not yet crying, mostly because the dire situation had not completely sunk in yet. "…Goodbye, Zim."

And then the transmission screen went black.

Dib couldn't believe it. He actually felt worse for the little alien than he did about himself. His own father not only had never acknowledged him at all until this point, but had basically just told him that he didn't care if he lived or died. How could anyone be so cruel to their own child? Then again, from what Dib had gathered from the information he'd stolen, Irkens were raised as test tube babies, and their DNA was put together by scientists in a lab instead of two lovers in a bed. Still, it was obvious that Zim still had feelings, and they'd been greatly wounded.

Hesitantly, Dib stepped out from his hiding place. "Zim." He called softly, but even despite that Zim turned on him in a flash, watery eyes narrowed in hatred.

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN THERE, YOU EAVESDROPPING PIG-MONKEY?" The little green man shrieked, throwing the nearest thing to him, a ceramic mug, at the earth boy's head. But his aim was way off due to the liquid gathering in his eyes, and with the emotion overtaking him, Dib easily dodged the utensil.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop on that." He apologized reasonably, even though he normally wouldn't. "But believe it or not, I actually really know how you're feeling right now, Zim. I know what it's like to feel like no one in the world cares if you live or die." Zim had been about to rip something out of it's bolts to throw at Dib, but his words reached him and he stopped. He didn't look back at the human, but one of his antennae twitched. He was listening.

So the human went on, slowly approaching the alien that he'd realized years ago was one of the greatest sources of purpose and enjoyment in his life. "Hey. Look at me." Zim didn't, so Dib went on anyways. "Come on. You may be accident-prone like they said," At that Zim did look back at him to shoot a deep glare. "But you're not a bad invader. Zim, you're passionate about what you do. You're creative and intelligent. Don't let them make you feel bad just because you're not perfect. Nobody is perfect, not even the Tallest." He reached out quickly before he lost his nerve, and set his hand down on Zim's shoulder in a sign of support.

"You don't understand, you stupid Earth Pig-Monkey!" Zim screamed, wrenching away from the hand of the much taller human. If Dib was an Irken he'd be tall enough to be the Tallest himself. He'd grown a staggering amount in the few short years Zim had spent on Earth, and now at the eve of adulthood he stood at six feet and four inches, towering over Zim by almost a full foot of height, just short an inch or two. Despite the human being taller than him, Zim didn't act any differently. He was still the superior species, that would still be true if the human were a hundred feet tall. Plus, Zim had gone through a rather drastic growth spurt for an Irken too, and was very proud of the near foot of height he had achieved in only seven years. Seven! Practically nothing to an Irken. But that didn't console him now, and he was sure nothing could.

Dib stubbornly put his hand back on the shorter being's shoulder and lightly squeezed, sighing lightly. "Zim… We've been fighting so long, and it's becoming apparent neither of us ever needed to be. Even though it was fun sometimes… I used to hate you and want you dead and I know you did too, but I think we both realized years ago that we're better off with each other around. I know it's weird, but… I'm here for you if you want me to be. And to be completely honest… I've kind of been wondering for a while what it might be like to be friends instead of enemies. I really wish I had a friend right now…"

The sappiness of the situation made Zim feel queasy, and there was a small part of him that distrusted Dib's true intentions. But underneath the nausea and paranoia was a strange longing reaction to the young man's invitation. Obviously he didn't mind being an alien, but it really sucked to be alienated. And all these years on Earth, of all the pig-monkeys that called themselves human that lived here, only the Dib had ever remotely entertained him. He'd never needed Dib more than he did at this moment, much as he wanted to deny it, he couldn't, at least not to himself. And anyways what did it matter if it was a trick? He had no reason to continue to exist now that he'd been utterly rejected by his empire, planet and species.

So he accepted his invitation and/or doom. "Fine... I've lost the respect of all of my Irken comrades, what does it matter anymore what they'd think about this..." Reluctantly, he held out his three-fingered hand.

Blinking in surprise, Dib returned the gesture, wrapping his five fingers around the gloved hand, and lightly squeezed. It was a strange sensation, shaking hands with the enemy with no tack in between, feeling each other's pulse and heat. It was nice, but it was also incredibly awkward. After a few seconds, Zim gave him a raised eyebrow that Dib could tell translated to something like, 'Okay, what now?'

Dib cleared his throat first and began to speak, "So, Zim… You've been to plenty of different planets. Which was your favorite? Besides Irk, of course." Though he interrupted the moment by asking his question, Dib did not immediately let his alien go. He was still inwardly marveling as how close to his own skin temperature Zim's skin was. It was just a little cooler, though that was probably due to living in a cold, metal base.

Zim was the one who finally wrenched his hand back and looked up at the human quizzically. "Why do you want to know this, Dib-human-who's-apparently-really-gone-insane-this-time?"

Dib ignored the insult, determined to get the answer. "Answer me first and then I'll answer you."

Zim sighed and then hummed for a moment in thought. "Mm… Hmm… HMMMM… Hmm-dee-hmmm… Hum. Hum. Hummmmuumuummm…" Okay, more than a moment.

Dib interrupted after about four and a half moments. "If you have more than one favorite, that's okay…"

"SILENCE ZIM IS THINKING-Okay, well, I stayed a night at Resortia, that was nice, even if it was a bit expensive… And the food at Foodcourtia is pretty good, if only that weirdo Frylord wasn't around all the time…"

Dib interrupted him, "Um, Zim," He sighed a little sigh. "Isn't there any planets you found… I dunno, awe-inspiring? Beautiful?"

"Irk, of course!"

Dib smack his forehead. "I know you like Irk best, Zim! I like Earth best! But what other planets are beautiful to you?"

Zim sighed back, and took a moment to think a little harder. "Well… There was a planet I once crash landed on and had to spend a few weeks repairing my ship… Irk had it labeled as Fooboo-14. But I overheard the natives there calling it Walima. The natives of Walima were a race of limbless, snake-like people. They probably would have eaten me if they could have, I was wounded and weak, but they couldn't chew, and could only eat things small enough to be swallowed whole. Most of them avoided me. But one didn't. A child, a female I think. She was curious about me. Despite being a different species, she had green skin and red eyes, so I suppose she must have taken pity on me because our similarity in appearance. She brought me food."

Dib interrupted, fascinated with the story. "How did she bring it to you without limbs?"

"The native's tail is skinny and dexterous, they use it like a hand. She dragged a giant leaf with native food on it. There was a pink egg with red yolk inside that was too spicy to eat. Then there was a smelly green chunk, that looked like a wad of moss or pond scum, I didn't even taste it. But then there was some fruit. There was a fruit the size of my hand with a purple rind and sugar-sweet red flesh. And some orange berries that were sweet and sour. Besides Irken food and Earth waffles, it's probably the tastiest things I've ever eaten."

"I prefer pancakes, myself." Dib smiled. "But I'd love to taste them too, if I could. What about the scenery of that planet?"

"It consisted of many mountains and canyons, but it was a very green planet. Most of the flowers were red. The river that flowed through the canyon was so pure you could see the pink sands at the bottom. But there were also a few pink predators that lurked in them, so I tended to avoid them." He paused there, indicating that was the end of his recollection.

But Dib was nowhere near satisfied. "Any others?"

Zim sighed and tapped his lip with a claw as he thought. "…Planet Kryndal, also known as Fooboo-19."

Dib interrupted, "What does Fooboo mean?" Since it had been repeated twice.

"It's an Irken word for a planet that's being considered for conquest, but is still years away from the actual invading process, as opposed to a Foofee planet, which is being invaded but is not yet conquered. NOW BE SILENT!" He screamed suddenly after 'patiently' explaining the lingo. "Kryndal is a planet inhabited by a subspecies of rock people. Most types of rock people are large and dull, but the Kryndals are usually more on the smaller size, and they're relatively intelligent, though of course nowhere NEAR as intelligent as the mighty Irken race." Zim nodded sagely to his own opinion. "But it is not the Kryndals intelligence that makes them memorable - It is their physical appearance. They are pleasant to look at. Their bodies are made of crystals and gemstones, and they come in just about every color you can think of. I've never been to their planet, though I've heard it's just as beautiful as it is dangerous, but the people themselves are awfully pretty. Almost too pretty to conquer… Almost."

Dib had been smiling as he listened to Zim's stories, and now it had stretched itself into a grin. "I really want to see one of them! Wow, rock people, how does that even work…?" He mused, mostly to himself, before turning his attention back to Zim. "What are the other rock people like? Do they eat? What do they eat? What are their-"

But Zim cut him off in the middle of his bombardment of questions, "SILENCE Dib-monster, I've answered enough of your questions!" Also he didn't know what the rock people ate. "Now it's time you answered mine - Why do you want to know?"

"I want to see them." Dib answered immediately. "I want to go to the places you've been. I love Earth, but it seems to be doing just fine with or without me, and I'm not getting any younger protecting it. Humans don't live nearly as long as you Irkens. I want to live my life while I still have time. I want to see the universe. I want you to show me."

Zim stared at him in silence for several seconds, thinking. He certainly didn't want to be stuck on this dirt ball of a planet any longer than he had to be, but he couldn't go back to Irk, either - Not without asking for his doom on a silver platter. So the only other alternative would be to go… Anywhere else in the galaxy. True, he didn't need to take the Dib-human along with him, but the alternative to that was traveling alone with GIR. Though the Dib was constantly accused of being insane by his peers, Zim knew that the definition of true insanity was his little robot servant. It would be nice to have another sentient being around, and it didn't take much considering to know that the pig-monkey was the best choice. He was intelligent enough to commandeer an Irken ship, he'd proven himself in battle on countless occasions, and most importantly… He was asking for this. He would be in debt to Zim and in Zim's ship he would be at Zim's command.

Best to make sure he knew that, though. "There will be conditions to such a request, Dib."

Dib nodded slowly, expecting as much. "Name them."

"First of all," The alien began. "On my Irken vessel, I am in charge. If you're coming with me, you are my slave."

"No." Dib replied immediately. He was willing to negotiate with the alien, but he knew that little green bastard well enough not to let him make all the demands. Conquering was in his blood, after all. "I agree that the ship is your property, and that you know more about it than me. I agree to be your second-in-command, your subordinate. I will follow your orders if I believe they are reasonable, but I am not and never will be your slave. Next condition."

Zim glowered at the human for his refusal, but admittedly the compromise was more than he'd expected of the willful human, and he was still in charge, so it was acceptable. "SECOND, you WILL follow my orders even if you aren't sure if they're entirely reasonable or not. Between the two of us, I am the one with the most knowledge about what we will encounter in the deep of space." He growled, more at himself than at the human, for the next words to come out of his mouth. "Rrr-I will not ask you do anything… Unnecessary. Like licking my boots." The alien grinned wickedly at the thought. "But you WILL be doing your share of maintenance and manual labor around the ship."

"Of course." Dib replied, more eagerly than Zim expected. But then, to Zim, ship maintenance was a chore. To Dib, it was exciting and out of the ordinary, and the chance of a lifetime to really learn about the Irken technology that beforehand he'd only had experience near-blindly tinkering with. Well, by his usual standards, anyways.

"Very well, human." Zim crossed his arms. "Then my last condition is this: If you come to regret this decision later on, for whatever reason, you will remember that you ASKED for this. If you want to go crying back to Earth later, you are responsible for getting your own big head back here."

Dib narrowed his eyes. "If that happens then I will get my only-slightly-above-average-sized head back, without your help. Now, I have a couple of conditions myself - If we're friends now, that comes with some expectations. We don't need to gab like girls all the time or paint each other's nails or whatever, but no more betrayals. If we get into a life or death situation, we're responsible for ourselves, but if it's possible to help one another, we will. We've only got each other now. So, I won't leave you behind like I did that one Halloween years ago..." He secretly had always felt really guilty about that. It was a dick move to pull, even on your worst enemy. "As long as you don't leave me behind, either."

Zim's eyes narrowed at the reminder. "I make no promises, Dib-thing. I won't risk my life for you..." He growled as he reluctantly admitted, "But I will... Assist you, if it comes as no inconvenience for me."

Dib nodded, "Right. So then-" Whatever he was about to say after that was muffled as a very messy, chocolate-covered GIR suddenly latched onto his big head out of nowhere, his metallic voice shrieking into Dib's ear.

"ROOOOAD TRIIIIIP~!"

"GIR! There are no roads in space!" Zim sternly reminded him.

"...Oooh yeeeeah..." GIR released Dib's head and jumped on Zim's instead, licking the side of his face and leaving a trail of chocolate behind as the robot amended, "SPAAAACE TRIIIIIP~!"

"GET YOUR SWEET-SMELLING HUMAN DOOKIE-FOOD AWAY FROM MEEEEE!"

Dib briefly wondered what he was getting himself into... But there was nothing behind him worth looking back on, so he didn't.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO


	2. Faring the Hopeless Well

They had to stay on Earth the extra six months for Zim's last dietary shipment came in, and during that time Dib had stayed at Zim's base instead of going home, except for once to sneak in to get the few personal things he needed, which he packed away in Tak's ship and took back to Zim's.

Of course Zim had protested to this arrangement at first, but after explaining to him his reasons, Zim had reluctantly agreed. Part of that being 'friends' thing the Dib had mentioned was not purposefully dooming each other, so it would probably be considered 'unfriendly' to force him to go back to his demonically scary sister after she'd told him to go and never come back.

Besides that, they were about to effectively trapped themselves together in the vastness of space, at least until they found a planet to part ways at if they wanted to, so bunking together as roommates for a few months was probably the best way to practice for what was to come.

Between the idle bickering, they spent most of the six months preparing for the voyage ahead - Zim taught Dib the basics of the Irken language, enough to identify the parts of Tak's ship as they disassembled it and put it back together, connecting it to Zim's ship to make it big enough to accommodate the both of them. Dib was reluctant to hand control of the ship to Zim, but he didn't have the necessary Irken PAK needed to fully utilize it, so he had no other choice.

Dismantling the ship did come with a near-fatal run-in with Tak's last dormant security drone, which revealed itself when they'd finally finished connecting the ships and attempted to delete Tak's personality and upload Zim's. The drone had nearly electrocuted them to death, but luckily for them, GIR had randomly decided to 'share' his chocolate-cola slushie with the drone, fritzing it to uselessness with the icey, sugary drink just in time.

"ZIM IS GREAT!" The conceited alien had proclaimed afterwards.

And of course Dib couldn't resist reminding him, "You didn't even do anything! GIR did!"

"Yes, and GIR is MY robot!" Zim had 'reasoned' back. Dib just rolled his eyes and let it go, which he'd long-since learned was the best way to avoid a fight. When he wanted to avoid one, anyways. Sometimes he purposefully started them anyways, just so it wouldn't get boring. They might be friends now, but that didn't mean they couldn't still be rivals too. They were too good at it to give it up completely, after all.

When the supplements finally arrived, Dib made a run to the nearest Wack-Mart to buy a bulk supply of the basics that he would need, as well. He bought all the necessary toiletries, of course, and canned foods, as well as snacks. He also secretly snuck on a few cases of bottled Earth-water, though Zim's ship had a purifying water renewal system on board, which he insisted was better for Dib than the polluted swill he'd been drinking all his life. He did make a good scientific argument for it, so Dib had tried it and admittedly it tasted much better and he'd gotten used to it. But if push came to shove Dib wanted to have an ace up his sleeve, and besides, who knew - Maybe Earth-water might contain some kind of nutrient Dib might need later. Better safe than sorry.

...Nah, who was he kidding? He'd snuck a water-gun on board too.

Finally the day of departure came, and although Dib had been eagerly awaiting it, he found it still had managed to come too soon. This was it, he realized. He was about to leave his home behind, and for all he knew, he might really never come back again. He certainly had no intentions of returning, anyways. Still, he filled a small jar with Earth-soil and set it up in his personal quarters as a final keepsake.

As he started up the finished ship, now twice as big as it had been before, Zim told him, "Last chance, Dib-smell. Are you sure this is what you want?"

Dib just nodded silently as he stared out of the window, memorizing the sight of his gorgeous home-planet for the last time as they flew away. The blue waters, the brown and green land-masses, the white clouds swirling around the atmosphere. Dib couldn't take his eyes off it.

Zim quickly got annoyed with the sentimentality. "I don't get it. I know this is where you began your existence, but other than that, what's so special about it?" He huffed. "Some of the scenery is nice, but your species has ruined most of it. There's countless more planets with everything Earth has and much more, why even bother giving this puny dirtball a last glance when being here has only made you miserable? Maybe we should blow it up and make this a proper goodbye-"

"Zim, shut the fuck up and don't even joke like that." Dib warned him sternly, so serious that Zim was shocked into silence for just a moment to listen to him. "I told you, I love my planet just as much as you love yours. There might be a million more planets out there, but Earth is still special. Just because it's smaller than other planets-"

"Thirty-two thousand times smaller than Irk." Zim reminded him, but Dib went on as if he hadn't heard him.

"It STILL doesn't mean it's not amazing in it's own right!" The human insisted, never taking his eyes off the planet. "That world is full of mysteries and wonders. Just because it's small, and fragile-"

"Incredibly fragile, only one moon to rely on, could knock it off orbit right now and doom the whole thing-" Zim once again supplied.

Dib growled out a sigh, quickly getting fed up with being interrupted, and he didn't even want to get started with the Irken on how special that moon was, which he also wanted to get one last look at. "LOOK, if you can't appreciate it, will you at least just give me a few minutes to? I know most humans have been terrible to me, but the planet itself was majestic. Magical." He added, smirking at his own choice of words.

Zim scoffed, "Don't tell me you believe in nonsense like 'magic'."

"You -definitely- wouldn't get that part, Zim." Dib insisted, and went on before Zim could bitch him out for assuming that his 'superior' Irken brain wouldn't understand something about his primitive world. "Let's just say, I made an oath once, to protect this planet. To never harm it, or anyone on it, except in self defense, and to especially always avoid killing, and I really, literally can't break that promise, at least when it comes to Earth and the human race. If you try to harm my planet again, I'll have to try to kill you, so just leave it alone and we can continue to get along, okay?"

Zim was supremely confused and flustered and trying not to get violent over it. "Eh? Whatever, you silly, stinky supersticious human! I don't even have to remind you that my race could wipe yours out with the greatest of ease if it really wanted to, if your PUNY planet actually had anything worth sending a fleet so far for. Enjoy your last look, but I'm telling you, there's nothing on Earth you'll miss. You'll forget all about your pathetic 'magical' planet once you've seen what the rest of the multiverse has to offer!"

Dib wanted to believe Zim was right, so much so that he almost did. But as he watched the colorful orb that was once his home get smaller and smaller in the distance, his heart ached. He knew he was leaving something big enough to leave a hole in his heart behind, but he hoped and trusted that what was to come would be grander yet.

He watched and watched until the Earth was no more than another speck among the billions of stars and planets, and only then did he finally rejoin Zim at the ship's control panel.

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Meanwhile, on Earth, Gaz stared up at the night sky. Her GameSlave5 was turned off for the first time since she'd gotten it, and it hung loosely from her fingertips by her side. She watched the alien ship speed off beyond the stars, and as it finally disappeared from sight, a single tear slowly slipped down her left eye. The tear was warm at first, but the night air chilled it in a second flat, making her shiver.

She ignored the cold. She would spent the rest of the evening ignoring the cold, staring at the stars in the heavens like her brother so often had. And she would be silent for the rest of the night, except only for the words she now spoke, although her audience would never hear her.

"I'm sorry, Dib..." She choked out through a thick voice. "But I know you'll happier out there than you ever would have been here..."

She said it in her heart, but she refused to say it out loud, just like she'd always done. If, by some miracle, her stupid brother managed not to die, then maybe it wouldn't really be 'Goodbye' after all...

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Except for sightseeing out the window, the first few weeks out in space were actually pretty boring. Earth was a long way on all sides from any other planets with life on them, so they had a ways to go before they'd find one. Even so, at first Zim was flying in the general direction of Irk. He was going to change direction in a short time and head towards the general area of Kryndal. Not of course to Kryndal itself since Irk was probably in the process of taking over it by then, but to another set of rock-people planets nearby for Dib to see and explore, before they too fell to the might Irken empire.

Zim and Dib kept themselves busy with ship maintenance, and the occasional argument, it was GIR they had to worry about. Fortunately Dib had the foresight to download a library of music and tacky movies to the ship's computer, to entertain himself, but also the dangerously insane robot. It had managed to keep him occupied... Most of the time.

"I WANNA FLY THE CHOO-CHOO NOW~!" The robot suddenly announced one day while the ship was on autopilot and Dib and Zim were resting in their seperate rooms, since they should have had about four hours of free space to fly through in the direction they were going. The second they heard the exclamation, however, they both jumped to their feet and ran to the main control room.

Zim growled, "GIR, DON'T YOU DARE-" But he only got as far as that before GIR had set the controls to hyperspeed, and it shrieked with delight as the ship lurched into a sudden burst of uncontrollable speeds. Then GIR began to smash buttons on the direction panel, and Zim and Dib were sent flying all across the room, smacking into each other more than once, as the ship violently zig-zagged through space.

After clipping an asteroid, GIR was knocked off of the driver's seat and away from the array of buttons it had been smashing, and after few dozen more tailspins, Zim managed to land on the control panel and took the opportunity to shut off the hyperspeed.

Still propelled by the inertia, the ship spun a few more times before it managed to slow down, and when it finally had righted itself, Zim had wound up splayed over Dib's waist.

"Uugh..." Dib rubbed his head, not immediately aware of the position until a second later, when Zim's hand pushed down on his lower stomach as the Irken struggled to get back up to his feet. Dib blushed suddenly at the pressure on his squirming stomach, but he didn't say anything except for, "Oof..." It WAS just an accident, after all...

Once Zim was up, he grabbed his robotic 'servant' and shook him. "GIR! Do you have ANY idea how much I want to BLAST YOU OUT INTO SPACE RIGHT NOW-?!"

While Zim was busy with GIR, Dib had risen to his feet and approached the control panel to find out just where they'd landed. But, looking out of the window, he was confused at first to find that there were no identifying stars to be seen, only the darkness of space. Then Dib's eyes went wide with terror as he realized what that meant.

"Z-Zim! We've got a SERIOUS problem here!" He shouted over his shoulder, unable to take his eyes off the screen.

"Eh!? What is it Dib-smell?" As annoyed as he was with being interrupted, Zim could tell by Dib's tone that it was as serious as he claimed, and he threw GIR across the room before joining the human at the control panel. "Hey, where did all the stars go-Oh, snurflak..." Zim hadn't yet taught Dib Irken curse words, but he put it together for himself what 'snurflak' obviously meant. GIR's wild ride had put them perilously close to the event horizon of a black hole, and the strong gravitational pull was dragging them closer to the point of no return every second.

GIR ran back to them and hugged their heads together tight, one hand pulling Dib's hair scythe, the other pulling one of Zim's antennae, and screaming as they flailed to free themselves, "YAAAAAY WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE~!"

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	3. Of Finding Lost Things

(( A.N. - Hey, just wanted to alert everyone of a small mistake I made - The first chapter was mostly written a couple years ago, and there's something I was gonna change about it but forgot to. Basically Invader Kim was replaced with Invader Yoogli, who is mentioned again in this chapter. Okay, hope you guys enjoy chapter 3~ ))

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Zim growled loudly, almost about to scream in frustration, and ripped GIR off their heads, throwing him across the room. Dib had already been setting the thrusters to take them in reverse, though Zim impatiently shoved him aside and resumed doing the same thing. Any human vessel would have already been pulled in, but even Zim's superior Irken vessel was straining to pull back from the outstanding gravitational pull.

They were making slow but steady progress in getting away, beginning to just see the ring of red and purple stars surrounding them, but the alarm systems suddenly warned them a few seconds too late of an asteroid coming their way. Normally there would have been plenty of time to evade it, but it was being pulled too by the black hole, which caused it to cross the space between them much faster. The huge, heavy rock hit their ship from behind, knocking it off it's course and sending it spinning forward. Zim tried desperately to right the ship in time, but suddenly, everything went still and everything went dark. Pitch black.

For a second that was actually hours, Dib and Zim were both sure they were about to die. Crushed by tidal forces before they even reached the singularity. It took them a while to realize they and everything else, even time itself, had stopped. Everything they thought they knew about black holes told them they should be ripped apart by now, so neither knew what to think about the fact that instead, they were suspended, for who knew how long, in dead silent blackness.

After a pause that could have been any other length of time, but either way it felt unbearably long to the living creatures within - Suddenly, GIR's blue eyes lit up in the darkness, though only Dib could see it, and nothing else. He still couldn't move, he just saw those blue eyes staring at him surrounded by darkness. Then the robot told him simply in his usual happy, dopey voice, "Your future will be decided by quantum fluctuations! Select either the number one or the number two~ One of these numbers will produce a future in which you survive! Your future cannot be determined until a number has been selected!"

At the same time, unbeknownst to Dib, Zim was seeing GIR's serious red SIR eyes gleaming at him in the dark. It said the exact same thing to him, only in his urgent, stern voice, "Your future will be decided by quantum fluctuations! Select either the number one or the number two. One of these numbers will produce a future in which you survive. Your future cannot be determined until a number has been selected!"

A simple game of chance that neither knew both were playing, that's what their fates were riding on. And by pure chance, Dib quietly mumbled, "Two..." just a second before Zim gasped to scream, "ONE!"

But now both of them saw GIR's blue eyes and heard his dopey voice respond, "You have selected the number TWO! Your future is now being determined!"

Now able to move, Zim reached over and tried to smack Dib, "You IDIOT! Who chooses TWO instead of ONE-?!"

Dib didn't have time to argue what difference it made - Although deep down he felt guilty that he might possibly have chosen wrong - Because before he could say anything about it, they suddenly went from suspended perfectly still, to falling fast into a dead drop.

Tremors ran through the frame of the ship as they fell, hitting debris along the way that couldn't even be seen. It was the strangest sensation, they could actually feel their legs and feet, the parts closest to the hole, falling faster than the rest of them.

Then Zim and Dib's stomachs and spooches lurched as the falling feeling changed direction with no warning - Gravity itself shifted from a vertical fall to a horizontal one. Their feet had almost been touching the control panels, but suddenly they fell onto their backs on the floor. The human held his stomach painfully, resisting the urge to vomit after having been thrown around like a rag-doll. Zim was woozy for a moment himself, but recovered much more quickly.

While Dib was still composing himself, wiping saliva from his mouth, coughing, and thanking the stars that he hadn't eaten anything that 'morning' before this unexpected 'detour', Zim approached the screen, staring at all of the new stars around them. Completely new. He could tell just by looking hard enough, but he silently punched in a command to the computer to confirm his suspicious anyways. It indeed confirmed that the star patterns were completely inconsistent with those that they had been flying through before getting sucked into the black hole. But then again, the speed gauge claimed they were going 'Infinity', which of course was impossible, so there was more than a good chance the ship had been damaged and wasn't reading correctly.

Dib groggily spoke up after he managed to get his stomach to settle, "Are we seriously still fucking alive right now...?" He clearly didn't sound like he believed the notion himself just yet.

"Well, I feel pretty alive, how about you?" Zim replied sarcastically, still focusing on what shape the ship was in - After all, it hardly mattered if they survived if the ship had been too greatly damaged to take them somewhere hospitable. It was too scary to think about the other implications of what they'd actually just been through yet.

But Dib couldn't get his boggled mind off of it. "Z-Zim - This is serious! We just got sucked into a black hole, and we're ALIVE!"

Zim abruptly left his work and stomped over to the human, reaching up to slap him right across the face. "ARE YOU REALLY THAT SIMPLE-MINDED, MONKEY-MAN?!"

"HEY!" Dib's face went red with indignation, the three-fingered palm print on the right side of his cheek redder than the rest. "I am NOT sorry to be glad I'm alive after surviving something that should have been impossible to survive! What's so simple-minded about that?"

"BECAUSE, Dib-worm, now neither of us are EVER going to get back home!" The alien yelled back at him, pointing to the screen and the stars beyond. "The computer doesn't recognize any of the star patterns around us! We have NO idea where we are, or even WHEN we are! We could be a million years in the past or the future! But even if we're in the same time, we're most assuredly in a completely different dimension! If we're even able to find another habitable planet before the ship runs down, we may never see another Irken, another human, or even another sentient being ever again!"

Dib suddenly realized why Zim was so paranoid about that. There was a good chance they might be stuck together, each the last of their species in this world that might be completely inhabitable to them, forever - However long or short that might turn out to be. A deep chill went through Dib's spine at the prospect, but he still tried to be as optimistic as he could be. "Okay, that IS pretty huge... But at least it's better than being crushed into a singularity, right?" But even as he mentioned it, a feeling of deep isolation settled over Dib. He'd left Earth behind thinking that he could still go back to it someday if he wanted to. Now, the chances of that ever happening was slim to none.

"Speak for yourself..." Zim growled in response.

"Oh, come on!" Dib spoke back, "Seriously, it is a freaking miracle we're alive right now! I think I lost one of my teeth and I'll have bruises all over me! I am in a great deal of pain!" He announced it as cheerfully as he could, but wincing all the same. "But I REALLY thought I was going to die for a second, so, this is pretty good compared to that! And you're welcome for choosing the right quantum fluctuation for us, Zim. Obviously if we had chosen the number one, we wouldn't have survived!"

But Zim wasn't the least bit pleased by that reminder, and he reached over to smack Dib again, but this time Dib put up a hand to block it. "That's another thing human! How dare you presume to make that decision before me?! Regardless if it was the right one, which is still very much up to debate, I am supposed to be in charge and making decisions!"

"You're right, Zim. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Dib put both hands up now trying to pacify him. If they were going to be stuck together forever he was going to have to get used to it. "It's just, GIR's blue eyes just seemed to be asking me, personally. I don't know why, the black hole must have been messing with my head-"

Zim cut him off, "Cease your lies! GIR's eyes were red when he asked the question and he was directing it to ME!"

Dib's eyes went wide and he stared at Zim, "I only saw blue eyes throughout the whole thing, Zim. I swear."

Zim sighed irritably, too drained to disbelieve him for the moment. "Alright! So we're alive! Big whoop! Let's see how long that lasts! But heed this last thing I say to you DIB," He suddenly reached up and grabbed Dib by the face on his shirt, dragging him down to eye level. "If you ever make a decision without consulting me first, you will-You will pay dearly for it!" He couldn't bring himself to say he'd destroy or kill him though, and Dib knew full well why. They might really only have each other from now on...

Zim let him go and then instructed his ship to search for a hospitable planet, and then retreated to his room, taking GIR along with him. Dib sighed and looked out at the unfamiliar stars. Unfamiliar, but still just as beautiful, just as colorful. Fiery red stars, emerald green stars, royal blue - He stared out at them for a while, noting all the colors they had in common with this new world.

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They had been traveling through the new, unfamiliar space for about two weeks, and during that time Zim had mostly stayed clear of Dib while keeping an eye on his robot at all times. But Dib did manage to catch him out of his personal quarters a few times, and tried to talk to him about mundane things, such as the new stars or their old lives. At first Zim wanted none of it, but he eventually remarked one day that he craved waffles, and he sat down with Dib in a comfortable silence while GIR made them some.

"GIR actually makes some pretty good waffles..." Dib mentioned after eating half of his.

"Now he does. He used to use pretty much nothing but salt in them..." Zim replied, and then abruptly, he sighed. It wasn't an irritated sigh like it would normally be, though. It was tired. "Look... I know this isn't the grand adventure you were hoping for... I..."

Dib looked up from his plate with wide eyes. Was he actually trying to apologize?

"RRR-GIR! I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GOT US LOST IN A BLACK HOLE!" Of course not.

"Hey, it's - Well it IS entirely his fault." Dib couldn't help but agree. "And it definitely isn't what I had in mind at first, but I'm still glad I went on this trip. I'm getting to do stuff no human ever has! If that's not adventure, I don't know what is!" He pointed out.

Zim shook his head in amusement. He was about to insult Dib and his simple-minded ways, but the ship suddenly alerted them for the first time since emerging from the black hole, flashing red lights and loudly declaring, "Habitable planet detected four hundred and seventy-nine thousand miles northwest. Breathable air, water and plant life are detected, and fauna is also present."

They both abandoned their plates and went to go see what the computer was telling them about, although of course they were still too far away to see anything yet but what the computer claimed was the habitable planet among a thousand others that looked just like it from this distance. But it was their only hope so far, so they set course for it.

A few days later they cleared the space between and were within a reasonable distance from the planet's atmosphere. Dib was excited to explore it, but Zim was clearly worried about something. "What the matter? I thought the computer said the planet was habitable?" The human inquired.

Zim growled and laid his head in his hands, his elbows on the dashboard, as he stared out at the planet with his superior Irken eyes. "It looks like it most likely is, but... I've been having some serious doubts about the ship's performance since emerging through the black hole. As you could already see, the speed gauge has gone insane. It says the planet is habitable, but it also alerted me to something yesterday, and... Well, it's just not possible..."

"What is it?" Dib insisted on knowing.

Zim shook his head, but then seemed to reconsider. "Do you remember my Tallest Red speaking of the other invaders who were also banished? That one of them, Invader Yoogli, disappeared completely?" Dib nodded, so Zim went on, "Well... Now the computer is telling me that it's discovered a distress signal from Yoogli's ship, and it's coming from this planet."

"Seriously? Well then, we gotta help him, right?" Dib suggested naively.

Zim resisted the urge to smack some sense into the human, only because it never worked. "Dib-worm, this shouldn't be possible! We all assumed Yoogli and his ship must have been destroyed by enemies, to have disappeared so abruptly-"

"Well, WE should have been destroyed too!" Dib pointed out. "What if Yoogli just happened to somehow get caught in the same black hole we did? Come on, Zim, lets at least check it out - We were going here anyways, it's the only planet so far where we have any chance of finding some extra supplies," They weren't destitute yet, but there was no point in continuing to fly around until they were. "If Yoogli just happens to be here, what's the harm in at least checking in on him?"

Zim rolled his eyes and twitched his antennae in a derisive way. But he couldn't actually think of a good reason not to check in on his comrade. He remembered with no small amount of shame how he'd laughed with the others when Yoogli was banished. And then the others had turned around and did the same thing to him... It wasn't the same though, not at all - Yoogli wasn't just terribly clumsy like Zim, he was a coward to boot! It was nearly unheard of among Irkens, to not be so inflamed with pride for the Empire that you'd be willing to lay down your life in glorious battle. Yoogli had done quite well on the written exam, in fact Zim had cheated off him a bit. But when it came to the physical training, he was close to useless. At least Zim was as bold and brave as any other Irken worthy of their title.

"Even if he DID just happen to survive a trip through a black hole," Zim insisted, "I seriously doubt he would have survived by himself very long. But, I suppose since we're going here anyways, we can at least sweep through the area he supposedly landed at..."

So they did, waiting until the spot that Yoogli supposedly was emerged into the sun-lit hours of the planet. Exploring an unknown world in an unknown dimension was daunting enough without starting off doing it in the dark of night.

They landed early that morning close by a beach that was only a few dozen miles from where Yoogli's ship was supposed to be. The new world was a primitive one, almost twice as big as Earth, and though there was lush green life all around and many creatures crawling, flying and swimming within, nothing moved quite the way the new visitors did, on two legs and thinking their "complex" thoughts.

They got out of the ship with their protective gear on at first. The sands near the beach were multicolored shades of black, white, tan, brown and navy blue. There were blue crabs here and there, and then to Dib's amazement and delight, he spotted a batch of dark purple baby turtles, struggling over the sands to get to the waters. GIR had wanted to eat them, but Dib sternly told him no, and the robot reluctantly obeyed.

The equipment said the air was fine to breath, but Zim had advised him not to trust it. However, it was too tempting for Dib to see if the air here smelled as salty, and there were so many similar things on this planet to his old one, he decided to be bold and give it a try.

Taking off his helmet, a misty breeze immediately refreshed his face, and he gave it a whiff. The air was salty, but there was also a hint of something green, like spinach, but slightly more bitter, and also something floral, like lavender, but heavier. Zim smacked his shoulder, angry at him for taking off his helmet, but Dib shrugged it off. He felt more than fine, the furthest from dying - He felt like in that moment, he'd finally just started to really live.

"Zim, knock it off, it's fine." He assured him. "Consider me your guinea pig here - Now you know the air here really is breathable." But stubbornly, Zim kept his helmet on.

The left the beach and went further into the surrounding 'forests'. There were many tall green shoots, like gigantic blades of grass, growing nearly everywhere. Dib could see that occassionally some had holes chewed in them. Some of them contained various creepy-crawly bugs, beetles and centipedes. Some others contained nests of a particular kind of bird, which was almost like a miniature stork, about the size of a house-cat. The feathers were a very lovely shimmering green-blue, and some of them presumably males, had an almost furry-looking "beard" of downy black feathers, which they kept fluffing up to make it look bigger for their mates. The birds also had a long, pointed beak, which they used to dig grub and build nests out of the shoots, and sharp talons to grab onto the shoots and dig in to keep them balanced while they fed.

Dib was so enamored by the gorgeous new sights that he didn't mind at all that one of the birds suddenly landed on his shoulder - Until it suddenly started to peck at his head, which naturally gave Zim a very good laugh. Dib howled with pain and smacked it away, chasing it off, and kept his helmet on after that. GIR, on the other hand, laughed gleefully at one of the bird pecked incessantly at his metal-head, declaring loudly, "AWW, he likes me!"

Further into the forest, there wasn't anymore birds in the trees, but they were finding half-eaten bird carcasses and bones here and there. Dib gulped, unnerved, and asked Zim through their shared intercom, "What do you think has been eating the birds?"

Zim kept his hands closed to the laser-guns at his hip. "Lets hope we DON'T find out..." Dib agreed, but he took his helmet off again and kept his ears open. Zim's hearing wasn't as good as his, his sense of vibration was much better. The latter usually more than made up for the former, but on an alien planet, every advantage was needed.

They were still several miles from the area that was supposed to be where Yoogli's ship was stationed, but it had since gotten dark. Zim ordered that they stop and Dib get some sleep. The alien could have gone on a few hours more before becoming exhausted enough to need to sleep, but it was a better idea to let the human rest first while he took first watch, that way by the time he was tired enough to really need sleep, Dib would be well-rested enough to take the next watch.

Several silent hours passed by in the cold dark. Zim's antennae had been rigid with attention the whole time, but nothing made as much as a rustle. Even GIR was in sleep mode. Zim was determined to make it through his shift, but it became incredibly boring. During his last hour, he nodded off into a dark, quiet unconsciousness without even realizing it. He was dreaming that he was still on his watch, so he didn't notice the difference because he very rarely dreamed.

Dib had slept soundly while Zim was watching him, but by the time he was supposed to take over his watch, he naturally began to wake himself. Still, it was cold, so he wasn't in any hurry to get up until Zim made him, either.

That was, until he began to hear a very quiet, subtle rustling noise surrounding them. He opened his eyes and turned his head slightly to the side. And then he froze.

The head of a gigantic green snake, at least twenty feet long was less than five feet away from Zim, whose head was drooped over in sleep. That jerk would never let him get away with falling asleep on the job! But Dib quickly reminded himself there was more important things to consider right this second. The snake was easily big enough to swallow either of them, but Zim, the smaller target, was the one it had it's eye - It only had one - on.

One eye. That was it. Grabbing a fistful of dirt, Dib suddenly hurled it at the snake's cycloptic eye, blinding it. The creature shrieked and turned to where the dirt had come from, striking instinctively and deadly fast at the threat. Luckily, Dib rolled away just in time, and the snake struck more dirt instead of him. Zim woke up as soon as he heard the commotion, his spider-legs shooting out of his PAK and propelling him into the air, his head whipping around to find the threat.

The snake was turning it's head around, trying to locate them by vibration, so Dib went completely still so that it couldn't find him. Zim, on the other hand, used his spider legs to leap soundlessly to a tree across from the creature, pulled out his laser, pointed it at the snake's head, and fired.

The snake made one last choked cry as the white-hot ray burned a hole right through it's brain. It writhed in it's death throes for a moment before it finally went still.

"ZIM IS GREA-"

Dib did NOT let him finish that sentence this time. "You are an IDIOT, ZIM!" He yelled at him in frustration and lingering fear. "You were supposed to be on watch! If you were tired you should have woken me up to take over the shift!"

Zim admittedly felt a little guilty about that, but he hated being yelled at. "Silence, Dib-thing! How dare you admonish your superior?!"

But Dib yelled right back, "I will NOT be silent, and you're NOT my superior anymore! You don't know any more than I do in this place and you almost just got the both of us killed! I can deal with dying, but I'm not going to let you leave me all alone!"

Zim growled, not immediately wanting to come back down from his spot, suspended in the tree. "I didn't mean to! I didn't even realize I fell asleep! I was watching the area and then the next second I've got a snake in my face! I... I guess I must have been more tired than I realized..." He admitted reluctantly, "...Th-Thanks for... For making a good distraction!" Of course he couldn't admit that Dib had saved his life, though.

"WHEE, LOOKIT ME! I'ma saber tooth squirrel!" GIR suddenly announced, having taken the front fangs from the snake and put them in it's own mouth.

Dib glanced over at the robot and then sighed with a small smile. "It's fine... Looks like the sun will be back up soon." He mentioned, and indeed the first red rays of daylight were peeking over the horizon. "Are you rested up enough to go, or do you-"

Zim quickly interrupted him, taking the chance to again insist upon his superiority. "Zim is fully rested! Mighty Irkens such as myself need only an hour of sleep a day, and I've had 45 minutes! Well more than enough to get by on!"

But Dib shook his head. "I can wait another fifteen minutes. Go ahead and get your full hour in."

So the Irken slept in another twenty minutes while Dib took GIR on a brief walk. When he got back the Irken was groggily rubbing his eyes, having finally decided to take off his own helmet, since it was getting stuffy now that the sun was up and burning bright.

They set off again by the light of day, and found that the green shoots were colored blue around these parts, and were accompanied by trees that looked like several bushes stacked up on each other, and colored like red wine. Dib was so distracted looking around at them, he tripped right onto his face not realizing the ground beneath him had been disturbed. When he got back up and wiped the dirt off his face, he realized that it looked as if something heavy had been dragged through the dirt, or, more likely, had crashed here and came skidding to a stop.

He and Zim followed the path in the dirt, not sure if they should hope for the best right away. Even if the ship had landed here, there was no telling if Yoogli was still alive in it. The trail led to a gigantic tree - It looked almost like a willow, but it was lavender-colored, and bent over unnaturally. Turning on his flashlight, Dib parted the hanging lavender willow-wall and shined the light in. Zim peeked in next to him.

It had long been covered with moss and other plant life, and the front of the ship had smashed into the tree, causing it to bend over as it grew around the obstruction which had since never left.

Zim slowly approached the ship as Dib continued to shine the light towards him. When he finally settled next to the spacecraft, he was't quite sure what to do with it at first. After a slight hesitation, Zim reached up and quietly rapped his knuckles against the side of the ship, sounding off a hollow, metallic sound.

A moment passed, then two, but nothing happened. No one answered back. So Zim shrugged, approaching Dib again, "Eh, maybe no one's home?"

But as soon as this was said, a sharp, creaky-scratching sound came from behind them, which they realized was the hatch trying to open against the plants that had grown over it. It seemed to be having difficulty at first, then it fell open suddenly and a short little Irken came tumbling out - It had apparently been ramming the door in it's desperation to get it open.

Zim's eyes went almost as wide as the bug-eyed creature in front of him, who had gotten to his knees and was staring at Zim the way a man dying of thirst would look at a pitcher of ice-water. Then, to both their shock, and with no warning whatsoever, the smaller Irken, Yoogli, ran after Zim with outstretched arms and tackled him to the ground in a near-crushing hug.

"COMRADE!" The other Irken cried out in disbelief, rubbing his head against Zim's chest like an overly-affectionate cat. His clothes were old and ratty, torn in several places, but Yoogli apparently cared not for modesty. He was even rubbing his antennae against Zim's neck and under his jaw, which was making Zim's pale green skin grow bright red.

Even Dib could tell this was not normal Irken behavior, and he blushed as well, coughing a little as he asked, "Uh, I take you guys already know each other...?"

Zim sputtered back at him, struggling to free his arms from the restrictive hug. "Not nearly as well as he thinks we do-!" He answered in a very squeaky voice. He was completely thrown off guard by the Irken even being there, let alone his behavior. He went on to his brethren in their native tongue, "Soldier, I ORDER you to get a hold of yourself! What has gotten into you?! How dare you smother me with this vulgar and unwanted display of affection?!"

Yoogli replied in a guilty tone, but did not lessen his embrace one bit, "Please, comrade! I'm sorry, but you don't understand! I thought I'd never see another Irken again! I've been trapped on this planet over fifteen YEARS! ALONE! Please, comrade... Comrade, please..." He repeated piteously after his initial outbursts, and the way he kept addressing Zim, he couldn't help but feel badly for his brother. 'Comrade' - It was a standard greeting among fellow Irkens when they didn't know their first names, but the way Yoogli said it... He clearly never expected to say the word again, and he loved hearing himself say it.

Zim wasn't completely sure how to address what was happening. On one hand he was, of course, incredibly embarrassed to have this be happening at all, but especially in front of Dib. On the other hand, he did pity the poor Irken for his situation, and related to it. All those years he spent banished from his empire and his people, there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't crave just this - The familiar touch of a fellow and the sound of his native language with no strange accents. As awkward and uncomfortable as it was, it also felt really good.

But the antennae-rubbing was far too much, and they really hardly knew each other. Even if they were the last two Irkens in this whole dimension, being this clingy this fast was just annoying. Once he'd finally freed one of his arms, Zim reached and grabbed the poor creature roughly by the appendages - Grabbing another Irken's antennae was normally a huge social taboo, but then again, so was touching another Irken with your antennae when they didn't give you permission.

Yoogli cried out in pain and his eyes watered up, and he finally pulled back away from Zim and took his arms back to himself. "Please, I'm sorry-!" He began, but Zim interrupted him.

"CALM yourself, comrade!" He commanded him, and hearing himself being addressed that way by Zim did indeed calm down the frantic little Irken. "I understand, okay? You've been alone here for a long time, and you're glad to see me. I don't blame you for that." He nodded arrogantly. Who wouldn't be glad to see Zim? "But I do not approve of your disgusting displays of affection! Look, you've probably got the human thinking... Weird thoughts!" He concluded, letting go of his antennae and gesturing over to Dib, who was still blushing.

Yoogli finally looked past Zim at the pale, tall alien behind him, blinking owlishly at the creature. He repeated uncertainly, "Hyoo... Man?"

Realizing he was being addressed, Dib fought to drop the 'WTF' expression on his face and replaced it with a small smile, waving with one hand. "Uh - Fashla?" He was pretty sure that was Irken for 'Hello'.

Yoogli raised an eyebrow at him and then turned back to Zim, "Why did he say he stinks?"

"Because he does, and he just thought you should know." Zim replied dismissively. He would explain to the Dib-thing later that it was 'Vashla', not 'Fashla'. Maybe. It was kind of a funny mistake, actually, so he might just leave it be.

Yoogli shrugged it off, "It matters not yet - You're here to save me, right? Bring me back to the empire?" He concluded desperately.

Zim sighed and shoved the shorter Irken off of him, then got up to his feet himself. "...No." He answered honestly after a short pause, taking no delight in how the other Irken's face fell. "We're trapped here with you. We didn't even know you were here until yesterday. Look, I AM glad I found you-" He added quickly as tears started to gather in Yoogli's eyes. "I just honestly wasn't really looking. I guess you can stay with us, BUT, no more of your weird hugging or rubbing!"

The shorter Irken blushed himself this time, nodding right away. "Yes of course, I'm so sorry-Zim." He addressed him by name, now both realizing and caring who the only other Irken in this dimension just happened to be. "I would never had done that, normally, of course... I just couldn't believe I was seeing another Irken, I didn't even care who it was at first. I just-I had a MIGHTY need to be near you!" He explained in a huff, clearly still resisting the urge to wrap his arms around him again, even despite knowing this wasn't just any Irken, but arguably one of the most dangerous and insane Irkens alive.

Zim pushed him back gently by the chest. "Yes, yes, Zim is too attractive for his own good, he knows this-"

"Wait!" Yoogli suddenly exclaimed, actually pushing Zim aside this time and going up to Dib. "Hyooman- Are you... Mem... Membrane?" He inquired hesitantly, and Dib's eyes went wider than ever.

"Did-Did he just say what I think he said...?" He aked, clearly not believing his own ears. How did this alien he'd never seen before know his name? He'd been paying close attention to what he and Zim were saying. Though he couldn't understand it, he put together the gist of what they were saying for the most part by their tones and body language. But Zim had never said his name, only called him 'human'. Where did Yoogli get 'Membrane' from?

Zim stomped over to the other Irken and grabbed his shoulder, demanding an explanation. Dib watch as Yoogli explained something to Zim very quickly. He quirked an eyebrow at Zim, waiting for an interpretation.

Zim seemed unsure, like he didn't believe what he'd just heard at all and didn't want to look stupid repeating it. But Dib insisted he tell him what had been said, so finally Zim relayed it back to him, "He says... He says he found something that he thinks belongs to you."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO


	4. The Inheritance

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"He said what now...?" Dib of course couldn't believe what he'd heard any more than Zim had. Obviously the poor lonely alien had gone crazy while in isolation. But he was curious, and Yoogli had already gone back inside his dusty ship to find the item in question, so he simply raised an eyebrow as the shortest sentient came back with what basically looked like a slightly-bigger-than-basketball-sized, shiny, silver metal sphere, floating next to him in mid-air. There were several grooves in in various sizes and in square and circle shapes - Some might be buttons or compartments, Dib guessed.

"Eeh?!" Zim immediately expressed more confusion at the sight of it. "Have you gone defective, soldier? This is obviously not a human device!" Zim admittedly couldn't really tell what exactly it was or what its function was, but the technology was too advanced to be human in origin. It looked more like it was created by some kind of advanced being, but since he had no idea what it was it was hard to say what kind of creature had created it.

Yoogli insisted, "I don't think it is either! But it told me you guys would come for me someday, and that when you did I was to give it to the 'Human Membrane' that came with you! You've come, so now, although this orb has been my only source of companionship all these years, I will do as it asked me..."

Zim shook head head slowly, "You're crazy..." He was sure of that, and he said as much to Dib in his language, "Forget it, Dib-worm, he's crazy-"

"I'm not crazy!" Yoogli suddenly lunged after Dib, grabbing his index finger, and shoving it towards one of the smaller circular shapes. The metal moved aside and his finger went in, and Dib jumped and pulled his hand back as his finger was pricked from inside.

"Hey!" The human shouted, sucking on his slightly bleeding finger. Before he could inquire what the big deal had been, the device had started to make a whirring sound, and the grooves in the metal glowed red for a moment.

Then, the device began to speak, in Dib's language, and in a voice that was somewhat robotic, but also somewhat like a female's tone. "DNA sample identified. Dib Membrane."

"What the zork..." Zim murmured, looking at the device with eyes even wider than the human's.

The device continued with no care for Zim's opinion, "Dib Membrane's access to the information stored within the database is... Denied." Dib almost wanted to ask what and why, but the machine went on without his input too. "The device and its vital information can only be accessed by Gaz Membrane. She was the one that was expected to arrive at this time and place, not Dib Membrane. Please bring the device to Gaz Membrane to access the information within."

The red glow faded and the newcomers stared in shock at it's request. Dib didn't like to consider the possibility that he was going insane often, but he had to admit, now was the time to do it. Gaz was more than a billion miles and years behind or ahead of him. He thought he'd never hear her or see her again, and he thought he had been rather glad of that too. She'd very seldom treated him any way but shabbily, to say the least. But now, in less than an instant, he went from being glad to be gone from her, to wanting desperately to see her again. He HAD to be going crazy to want that, even if the promise of secret information was awful tempting. That was, of course, assuming this wasn't a hallucination.

But Zim had heard the exact same thing, and he confirmed it when he exclaimed, "What?! Now your scary sororal unit has something to do with this madness?! Machine, you will not disobey me! I demand you tell me what you want with the Gaz-beast!"

The machine's grooves now whirred in a cyan blue colored glow, and answered back in the same calm, robotic voice. "The device may communicate with you voluntarily, but you cannot force it to do so. Attempts to hack into the device for the information guarded within, or to destroy the device, will be met with painful and possibly fatal consequences." To drive home the point, several grooves opened and pointed various miniature deadly weapons at them, lasers and pointy things mostly, before retracting back into their slots.

Zim growled at the threat, and the confusion that was making him more than flustered. He wanted to scratch and bite at it, but wary of it's warning, he instead just childishly kicked some dirt in it's direction and pointed menacingly at it. "It doesn't matter what your big secret is! We'll never be able to find her, because in case you didn't notice, we're on the other side of a black hole!"

"The device was already aware of that fact." It argued back at Zim, "It is also aware of how you many return to your own dimension, and it may show you-But only if you faithfully follow my direction while you are still in this dimension, and agree to bring the device to Gaz Membrane, to whom the device truly belongs, once you are again in your own."

Hope weighed them down as much as it lifted them. They were desperate to believe it could be possible, but none of them trusted the mysterious machine or it's motives. Dib got over his shock first, being the least worried of the three about getting home. "Can you say why you were expecting Gaz?"

The machine was quiet for a moment except for the airy whirring noise. Then, finally, the etches in the metal went purple, and it replied, "Gaz was told to come to this place and time by her mother, who built this device. For some reason, she sent you instead. But the information stored within the device can only be utilized by Gaz. You must bring the device to her. In return, the device will aid you on this endeavor in every way that it was programmed. Your Earth and all it's creatures are in danger, Dib, and only Gaz and the information within the device can save it."

Dib felt more than a little shaky. "...What did you mean, 'her' mother... We have the same mother, don't we...?"

The orb backtracked, "Yes, you misunderstood. You DO have the same maternal and paternal unit as Gaz Membrane, Dib Membrane."

"Then what happened to my mother?" Dib asked desperately, "Why was she even in this dimension? What the HELL is going on here?!"

The silver sphere was silent for a full moment, "...Your mother is now deceased. Creating the device was one of her last acts in life. The device contains much information imparted onto it by your maternal unit, but only Gaz Membrane may access it. The device will only aid Dib Membrane in getting the device to Gaz."

Dib slowly sunk to his knees, feeling the need to sit for a moment. He had no memories of his mother whatsoever. His father refused to say anything about her the rare few times Dib had asked. A couple of years ago Dib had insisted on knowing, and his father finally admitted he had cloned Dib and Gaz, and would say no more than that. But Dib wasn't an idiot, he knew that even if they were cloned, which he was inclined to believe more than his dad actually getting it on with a woman, there still would have needed to have been an egg donor.

Dib had thought that she was probably just a random lab assistant that had been sent away with a hefty sum. He'd entertained himself only once or twice thinking his mother might be someone more interesting, like possibly some kind of vampire or demon if Gaz was any indication.

But like Zim, he realized that this machine was most likely beyond the scope of human capabilities. So hesitantly he forced himself to ask, "Is..." He corrected himself sadly, "WAS our mother... Human?"

"That information is classified."

Dib shook his head and chuckled humorlessly. By refusing to answer the question it pretty much already had, not in as much detail as he'd hoped. It was something he'd thought about before, but only as a joke to himself, only because the human race seemed so foreign to him at times. But what kind of being could his mother have possibly been? And - Oh god, a thought had just come to him, "Wait, then, our dad, did he-?!"

"That information is also classified."

Actually, Dib was kind of glad for that one. If his father had been telling the truth about cloning them, he had to have known WHAT he was cloning his DNA with, of course. But if he hadn't cloned them... Dib shivered and shook his head to clear away the thought.

Besides, that wasn't what was important. He suddenly was filled with the burning need to know about the part of him that had been missing so long, and the key was to get this device back to Gaz. However, as much as he wanted so desperately to know, he was still reluctant to go back to Earth. It wouldn't be much of a 'space adventure' if he just went straight back to Earth, after all. But if his planet was in danger, he had to do it, and would. He had promised a long time ago to protect his home-planet, and when he made a promise, he took it seriously. He just had to figure out how to convince Zim to take him back or find a way to do it himself.

Speaking of the little green devil, he finally spoke up again, guessing at Dib's line of thought. "I have no interest in returning to Earth, Dib."

"The device will not show you how to return until you have agreed to bring the device back to Gaz within a reasonable amount of time. Once you have agreed, the device will terminate you if you do not comply within a reasonable amount of time."

"Bah, you could try! And just what do you call 'reasonable'?!" Zim scoffed.

"The device will be able to return you to your dimension more or less two years after you left it. Then you will be given four additional years to return the device to Earth. It should only take you a year if you left immediately, but the extra time will allow for unseen variables. After that, the situation on Earth will reach a critical standpoint. If you do not reach your sister by that time, Dib, you will die, and your planet may soon follow you. The device still cannot fathom why Gaz chose to risk such a fate sending you instead of coming herself like she promised she would..."

"Probably sheer laziness." Zim rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "If I know anything about the Gaz-beast, it's that if she can pawn a task off on the Dib-worm, she will."

Zim's explanation was almost believable, Dib had been thinking along the same lines himself. But he knew his sister slightly better - She WOULD pawn her mediocre chores on Dib whenever she could, but this was so out of the same ballpark as cleaning up the dinner dishes. If a task was actually important, Gaz would do it herself, let alone if the Earth was on the line - She wouldn't risk leaving something this important to Dib without a good reason, would she?

Well, Dib supposed the only way to find out was to find her and ask her. "...I'll do it. And I'll find my own way back if I have to."

Zim was about to tell Dib how very stupid he was, but the machine acted first, taking out some kind of needle from one of it's compartments and punturing the top of Dib's hand. The young man winced for a moment, but it was over quickly. He rubbed his hand as the needle was taken back, feeling over the small metal chip left behind.

Afterwards the orb went on, "It is advisable that you now gather as many supplies as you can and then leave the area."

But Dib had one last thing to ask, "Wait - Why did my mother even come to this place? Why did she leave you here, and how did she die?"

The machine whirred for a moment, "...The device can only say this to you, Dib Membrane. Your mother was a brilliant scientist. But she was also a believer in the forces of the paranormal. She went to many places and found many things, the memories of which she stored in me. But ultimately, she chose to terminate her own life."

Dib's stomach dropped. He had been painfully familiar with that kind of despair a few times in his life, and though he had never known his mother, he felt closer to her than ever. His father always went on about how much like him Dib was, but it seemed that the boy took after his mother just as much. "But, why-?"

"Classified."

The human sighed deeply. "And all this classified stuff, only Gaz can access it. But would you tell me after she has?"

"Only if Gaz authorizes it. But the device is reasonably sure that she will, if she trusted you to come get it in the first place."

"Are you sure it was really that important to Gaz in the first place?" Dib couldn't help but press, "She must have been really little when she made that promise, and people change as they grow..." He was pretty sure Gaz at least cared about their planet as much as him for the sake of the creature comforts she enjoyed, but she was so mysterious, it was hard to tell now that he knew she'd been hiding something this big from him all along.

"She must have had something equally important to do on Earth." The device deduced.

Zim growled in annoyance, but before he could chime in, Dib went ahead and said what he knew Zim was going to say. "Yeah, right. She probably just wanted stay home playing video games and eating pizza..."

Suddenly, the sphere turned red and actually scolded him, it's voice now sounding more sentient, even somewhat maternal, rather than robotic. "Dib, your sister loves you just as much as you still love her deep down, even though you BOTH never showed it very well. Don't underestimate her. There's a reason your mother chose her for this task instead of you."

"Ouch. Right in the feel-maker." Zim commented with a grin.

Dib glared over at him. "Will you PLEASE shut up, Zim? This IS kind of important to me." Then he turned back to the orb. "Then I guess if you're so sure about that, then there must be a GOOD reason Gaz 'sent' me."

"This has yet to be determined. But the machine deduces that with its assistance, it is more likely than not."

Dib rolled is eyes and crossed his arms, still petulant from his scolding. "Pft. Sure. Whatever. Lets just get to this already - What's edible around here - Oh, and, uh, is there something I can call you besides 'device' or...?"

"You may call me whatever you wish to." The orb responded.

Dib only had to think about it for a few seconds, "What was my mother's name?" He was saddened to realize he didn't know that, and hoped that it too wasn't classified.

"Your mother passed her name to your sister, so it was also Gazlene." The glow turned to deep purple, like the color Gaz sometimes dyed her hair when she got sick of her usual magenta.

"Huh, weird..." Well he couldn't name the machine after his mother and also his sister, so with a shrug he decided, "Eh, I guess I'll just call you Orby then."

"Temporary name accepted."

Tired of not being the center of attention, Zim shoved Dib with a growl, "Yes, yes, this is all very life-changing for you. But now lets focus on getting back to our own dimension-You CAN really do that, right 'Orby'?" He focused his scowl upon the device.

"In theory. Which is better chances than you've got without me." Orby replied coolly. "But first, there are a few chores you'll need to complete before you leave this planet..."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Yoogli's ship had not fared well from the crash, and it had been enduring the elements for far too long to boot. There was no way to repair it completely, the only thing that could be done was to salvage as many spare parts as possible and store them aboard Zim and Dib's Dual-Craft, just in case they were needed later.

While Zim and Yoogli worked on doing this, Orby assisted Dib in collecting raw materials from their surroundings. In particular, she instructed him to collect several buckets of sap from the giant grass blades nearby, and only from the young plants that hadn't yet been hacked into by bugs and birds. Orby explained that the sap was edible, but it was better used as a balm for the skin, and that it had healing properties for wounds.

Yoogli also led them to an area not much further beyond his ship where a kind of berry bush was growing. The stems and leaves were prickly, and they bore berries that were shaped like limes. Some were green like limes too, but more were red, which Yoogli told them were the ripe ones. Dib selected one of the brightest red berries, rubbed it clean on his shirt, and nibbled off one of the ends first. It tasted like an extra tart cherry-plum, with just a slightly bitter aftertaste. Dib tossed the rest of it in his mouth and scrunched his nose up a bit at the sour sweetness, relishing the odd taste before reluctantly swallowing.

Just a bit beyond that there was another fruit-bearing plant, a tree this time, with arrow-shaped lavender leaves and white bark. Lots of patches of lavender flowers surrounded the trees, which Dib realized was where the floral scent had been coming from. The fruit on the trees were about as big and round as oranges, with dark indigo skin, almost like a gigantic blueberry. When Dib cut it down the middle, the flesh inside was white with with blue seeds throughout. It had the consistency of an apple, and it also tasted somewhat like an apple, but with notes of something similar to blueberry and lavender.

They collected as much as they could and loaded it all aboard the ship, then set course for space. Orby told them that they would be traveling onwards and outwards for at least six months before they reached the general area where it would give them further instruction on how to get back to their own dimension.

Dib and Zim would usually pick fights to pass the time, but Yoogli would become skittish whenever they started getting hostile with each other, so for his sake Dib kept it to a minimum. Especially because, although Yoogli hadn't hugged Zim again like he promised he wouldn't, he had been constantly hovering as close to Zim as he could get away with. When he overstepped his boundaries, he tried to offer Zim assistance in whatever he was doing.

Zim quickly got quite sick of it, and only a few weeks into their journey, he suddenly snapped at the shorter Irken one day after catching him trying to inch his way close enough to touch shoulders with him. "Will you GET AWAY from me, you annoying, needy little shrimp?! What is wrong with you?!"

What was actually wrong with Yoogli was more than just extreme loneliness. Yoogli had disappeared at a critical point in an Irken's life, more or less the age of puberty. Irken growth hormones were stimulated most by physical contact with other Irkens, which was usually achieved simply by brushing by one another when their masses congregated together. Zim's growth had been supplemented by human hormones in their absence, but Yoogli had been completely isolated for years, which explained why he was still so short and why he was so needy. He subconsciously craved contact with his fellow Irken, and the rejection was almost too painful to bear. Only the prospect of seeing other Irkens soon gave him the hope to go on, but he sulked around the edges of the room after that.

Dib felt bad for the little alien. It was understandable why Zim had always been such an extraordinary jerk to him, but it was hard to get why he was acting this way towards his own brother, other than just the casual touching. One night, after Zim had retired to his quarters (which he refused to share with Yoogli) for the night, Dib came out of his room and met Yoogli in the main control room. The poor thing was curled up on the floor with his only spare blanket, staring out into space.

His antennae perked up as Dib approached him and he looked over. Dib gave him a shy smile and raised a hand in greeting, "Fashla."

The Irken slowly smiled back, and shook his head. "Vashla. V-V-Vashla." He corrected the human.

"Oh. Vashla." Dib corrected himself afterwards, and then came over and sat next to the alien, leaving a few feet between them.

Until now, Yoogli hadn't paid Dib much heed, as he'd been too busy trying in vain to get Zim's attention instead. Instinctively he didn't trust the human, especially because of his affiliation with Zim, but also because from what Zim had told him, he wasn't even the right 'Membrane' that Orby had spoken to him of. But the creature seemed friendly, and Orby had accepted him, so Yoogli decided to give him a chance. Beggars couldn't be choosers, after all.

He stared up and down at the human-thing, especially at his hands. Dib noticed and held one up for the Irken to inspect. The green being reached up and traced all five of Dib's fingers with one of his. "Dahl lakt..." He murmured to himself in Irken.

"Hand?" Dib guessed, then tried again, wiggling the digits at Yoogli. "Or, fingers?"

"Fingers." Yoogli confirmed. "Five fingers, you have."

"Dahl?" Dib held up one finger, then all five. "Or, lakt?"

Yoogli stared at him uncertainly for a few seconds, but then he seemed to make up his mind, and shook his head. "...Dahl. Flib, wik, som, rak, dahl." He counted off Dib's fingers one at a time.

"One, two, three, four, five..." Dib repeated, his lips stretching into a grin. Then he hesitantly held up another finger on the next hand. "Six?"

They ended up exchanging various simple Irken words all night, mostly numbers and body parts and food, whatever was nearby. Dib soaked in the new information like a sponge, whilst Yoogli was just glad to have someone around him, who actually wanted to be there.

But soon enough Zim started to stir in his quarters and gripe at GIR for drawing something on him while he slept, and Dib knew he wouldn't be happy to see him and Yoogli getting along, so he asked the shorter Irken before he retreated to his own room, "It is okay if we do this again tomorrow night?"

Yoogli nodded right away, then reached up and brushed his fingers against Dib's. Dib briefly caught and squeezed the two skinny digits, which were cool against his warmer flesh. The alien blushed a little, then Dib quickly released them before heading back to his own room.

The next night Dib came out again once Zim had retired, just as he'd promised, eager for his next lesson. They did the same thing every night, using the ship's computer with the volume down to it's lowest settings to bring up new pictures and label them with their Irken word. Yoogli also taught him Irken writing and a few basic things about Irken etiquette.

One night, he was teaching Dib the rules about casual touching. "It's never okay to directly touch or grab the lekku-" This apparently was their word for their 'antennae'. "Or touch anyone else with your lekku, without the other Irken's permission... So I guess it's no wonder Zim wants nothing to do with me." The alien suddenly sighed. The lessons had helped him forget about that embarrassing moment for a while, but now it all came back to him. "I still can't believe I did that to ZIM..." He groaned, blushing bright pink.

"You shouldn't beat yourself up over it." Dib advised him. "Zim's a jerk, he makes a big deal out of little things all the time. It's completely understandable why you'd want to be close to another member of your species after being alone so long. Zim's the one I don't get - He's been gone almost as long as you have. You'd think he would have been just as glad to see you. I guess he's just an antisocial jerk everywhere he goes..."

Suddennly, Orby floated over to them, it's grooves glowing cyan-blue. "Yoogli's desire for touch is natural, he has nothing to be ashamed of for having those feelings. But Zim's desire not to be touched is just as valid. He must have his own reasons for feeling the way he does, and it should be respected."

Dib stared at the sphere, then slowly nodded. Most of the time Orby only spoke up to give them advice about the ship, or to warn them about hazards in space, or when GIR had mixed something inedible into their waffles, practical things like that. But sometimes, like just then, it seemed to give them the sort of advice that could be called 'maternal'. Or maybe that was just Dib projecting his feelings about his mother onto the device she'd made.

Still, he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I guess so..."

Yoogli went on to explain that brushing against other Irkens when walking through a crowd was acceptable, but that extended contact of any kind was only to be done with permission. Guiltily the alien then looked back at Dib, "Um, sorry for touching your fingers the other day, by the way. I was curious, but I still should have asked."

Dib shook his head, "It's okay. I didn't mind."

Yoogli's cheeks burned a brighter pink, and hesitantly, he went on, "Then... Would you, uh, that is-Well, you've been an excellent student so far, so I was wondering, uh..." Dib raised an eyebrow at him and motioned for him to just spit it out. Yoogli blushed harder than ever as he forced himself to ask in a fierce whisper, "C-Can I please embrace you like a comrade?"

Dib blushed back as he finally heard the request, but the prospect actually didn't bother him at all. Hugging was supposed to be a normal thing among humans too, though obviously Dib didn't have much experience with it either. He'd only been hugged by his father on a few occasions, by Gretchen a few times after and during their awkward kissing sessions, and once, he'd gotten a quick one-armed hug from Gaz when he'd unexpectedly decided to give her a bouquet of purple tulips on her sixteenth birthday, instead of the usual tired plush animal or video game. That was it, but that was probably still a lot more experience than the average Irken had with such things. So he simply nodded, and got down to his knees so they could reach each other, opening his arms in invitation.

Yoogli immediately accepted the invitation, falling against Dib's chest and nuzzling his face against the crook of his neck. Like his fingers had been the other day, the rest of his skin was cool to the touch. Irkens weren't naturally cold-blooded though - Yoogli was just accustomed to being cold and isolated. But he craved Dib's warmth and he soaked it in, snaking his skinny arms around his midsection. A little awkwardly, Dib loosely wrapped his much bigger arms around the little alien's back and shoulders. There was no denying how weird it was, this alien who looked so much like Zim being so affectionate with him, but it was also rather enjoyable, in a strictly platonic way.

After a moment or two Dib began to wonder how much longer Yoogli wanted this to go on, and just as he was thinking this the alien went on to ask him, "Would it be okay if I slept next to you for just a few minutes?"

Dib nodded silently, lying down on the floor of the ship while Yoogli got comfortable snuggling against his chest. Dib was planning on waking the alien up after a few minutes, but soon Yoogli's cool skin became as warm as his, he found himself getting comfortable, and after a few moments more, Dib had unintentionally fallen asleep himself.

They shared a nice nap, but unfortunately they were awoken from it quite rudely when Zim came out of his quarters, for once silently as GIR had been taking a nap itself when it's master awoke, and discovered the two of them still sleeping. At first he simply stared for a moment, multiple negative feelings brewing inside of him for both the human and his comrade. It was partially his own fault - He'd been stubbornly evading Dib almost as much as Yoogli ever since the human had saved him from the snake - An error he resolved to never repeat. He hated to be reminded of his weaknesses and shortcomings almost as much as he hated being touched by clingy, annoying 'comrades'.

But this was too much, from both of them. Mustering a deep growl, he then stomped over to the two of them and shrieked, "WHAT is this ABOMINATION?!"

Yoogli's eyes immediately went wide and fearful, but Dib only rubbed at his own still-tired eyes, unimpressed with what he saw as one of Zim's usual overreactions. "Ugh, Zim, will you please shut-"

Suddenly, Zim reached down and grabbed the back of Yoogli's shirt, and threw him off of Dib and across the room. Then, before Dib could protest what he'd done to the poor little Irken, Zim reached down and sealed his mouth with his hand, "NO, YOU shut up, DIB!" Then he got back up and advanced quickly on Yoogli using his spider legs.

Yoogli tried to back away, but once his back hit the wall, Zim had him trapped. "DIB doesn't get why what you just did was so DISGUSTING, Yoogli, but you do! You know what you did is only acceptable with fellow Irkens! You will explain yourself NOW!" He ordered, dragging the little alien up to his feet but still keeping him pinned against the wall with his spider legs.

Yoogli sputtered uselessly for a moment, which made Zim angrier. He put a claw to Yoogli's neck menacingly, and he finally blurted out, "I don't need to explain myself, because I am convinced that Dib Membrane is an Irken hybrid, and therefore it IS acceptable for me to share simple affections with him!"

Zim's eyes went wide and be backed away a few steps at Yoogli's unexpected and downright insane declaration. "You. Are. CRAZY!" He yelled back at him.

And Dib yelled back at him awkwardly in the Irken Yoogli had been teaching him, "No he is not, Zim! He does not need to explain to you his actions and he could be right!"

Zim advanced again and reached to strike Yoogli, and Dib rushed at him and held him back. Still, Zim screeched at the poor little alien, "You've been teaching him Inner Irken?!" It was the language comrades used among each other versus the 'Outer' version of Irken they used with other species. "You'd better be sure you're right about your insane claim, Yoogli, because what you just did will get you executed if you're wrong!"

"Yes, I do know that, but I am sure of it!" Yoogli shot back, "That exact rule is why I'm sure of it, because Orby has been speaking to me in Inner Irken all along! So the creator of Orby, who is Dib's maternal unit, must have been Irken!"

Dib's eyes went wide at Yoogli's claim, then he turned them towards Orby. "Is what he's saying true? You have to tell me if he's right!" He demanded irrationally.

But the sphere actually admitted after a short pause, "...Affirmative."

Zim stopped struggling against Dib's hold, in shock, as he heard it, and in similar shock, Dib let him go soon after. Zim mumbled, "It can't be... He doesn't look anything like an Irken at all!" He pointed out fairly.

Dib suddenly retreated to his quarters. Zim was about to follow after him, but he came out just a second later with an electric razor he'd been using to shave his daily stubble. Instead, this time he sat with his head over a waste bin, and with only the slightest hesitation, he began shaving all of the hair off of his skull.

Ever since he was a kid his father would periodically cut his hair for him on the few occasions he ever saw him in person. He had always insisted on it as a bonding ritual, as his father chose to 'style' his hair the same way. But now, as each strip of hair fell away, Dib slowly realized that, like most of the things his father had ever told him, was a lie.

Underneath the hair that grew over it, his 'scythe' had been hiding a single lekku.

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(( Author's Notes: I'm sure you guys probably have a question or two - Go ahead and ask them anyways, but more will be explained in the next chapter too. =P ))


	5. The Sacrifice

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After Dib had finished shaving all of the hair away from the strange new appendage, which was black just like his hair and felt rather like a super-skinny and smooth rat-tail, Zim demanded of him, "Wait, you seriously never felt that thing before?"

"Not really?" Dib answered helplessly, actually touching it bare for the first time. But he couldn't really feel anything until he tugged on it, and he still couldn't distinguish it from the feeling of simply tugging on a lock of hair. "I can barely feel it now..." Then again, it was hard to focus with how his heart was pounding and his mind was reeling with all the questions and feelings that came with this new information.

Yoogli spoke up in a bit of a sputter, "M-May I see it?"

Zim gasped outright at the smaller Irken, "How DARE you-?!"

And Yoogli quickly squeaked back at him, "It's NOT like THAT! I used to be a medic before I became an Invader, remember!"

Dib rolled his eyes. "Quit freaking out, Zim. Mine doesn't feel anything like what yours are supposed to. Go ahead, Yoogli, I trust you."

Yoogli stepped forward, but Zim pushed him back. "NO! ZIM will do it!"

Dib raised a doubtful eyebrow at him, "Were YOU a medic, Zim? Do you know what you're even looking for?"

Zim blushed and quickly turned on Yoogli to avoid the embarrassment of answering the question himself, "Do YOU know what you're even looking for?"

"Well, yeah, kind of?" Yoogli replied with a 'duh' sort of expression. "If he can't feel it there's only one reason I can think of, but I'd have to check under the base of his lekku to confirm it."

"-I- will do it!" Zim insisted.

But Yoogli insisted right back, "Only if Dib says you can!" And he hit a nerve there. Zim had been bossing him around for being shorter, but short or tall, that was one rule everyone had to obey.

Zim growled and forced himself to ask Dib as politely as he could, "DIB-WORM - May I, for scientific research purposes ONLY, touch your lekku?"

Dib's doubtful eyebrow had never really come down, and he shook his head in disbelief at first, a grin slowly stretching across his face. If he didn't know any better he could swear Zim was getting jealous. That was too rich. Well, why not let him? It wasn't as if it would hurt anymore than usual if he decided to be an asshole and pull it. "Fine, Zim, whatever, I guess..."

Even after getting permission, Zim hesitated. He had never touched any other lekku but his own, let alone some freaky, mutated lekku that just happened to be sprouting out of his greatest enemy-turned-friend's head. But he refused to let Yoogli be the first Irken to touch the Dib's lekku, either. In his head, he had more than earned the 'honor' after everything they'd been through over the years - And this WAS purely for research purposes. Dib claimed that he couldn't even feel it, after all, so there nothing... Weird about this at all.

Still, his green hand was shaking slightly and the blush never left his cheeks as he reached out towards the newly-revealed appendage. He at first grasped it lightly at at the tip, as if he was handling a weird snake. "Gross, why is it so limp...?" He mumbled.

Dib glared at him and Yoogli answered, "Pull it up a little more so I can see..."

Zim queasily did as he was asked, and soon both Irkens were covering their mouths to stifle a gag, thoroughly grossed out by what they saw. Yoogli flinched in disgust as he confirmed, "It's what I thought..."

After taking a moment to recover, Yoogli reached up and pulled one of his own lekku down for Dib to see. He pointed to the underside of his at the base of his skull, where a curved groove sat underneath the base of the antennae. "This is a vital part of our lekku. It keeps it rigid, but it's also where the largest amount of nerves is concentrated, so it's what allows us to feel the lekku and the signals we get from it... But it seems..." Yoogli had to take a moment to stifle another gag. "Yours was, in infancy... C-Cut." He forced the word out like it actually tasted bad saying it.

Dib's eyes went wide. There was barely about doubt as to who had done it, by how grossed out the Irkens were about it, his mother surely never would have, so it had to be his 'father'. The only man he'd ever had as a role model, the man who supposedly was one of Earth's greatest intellectual assets, was turning out to be a pretty abhorrent individual in Dib's opinion. Oh, he'd probably say he did it for 'Dib's own good', but fuck that, it was Dib's body, not his, and he should have been honest instead of hiding it from him and trying to pass him off as human. Which he still mostly was, but he mind raced wondering now, what else?

"Why not just cut the whole thing off?" Dib asked morbidly, but also genuinely curious, so he wasn't proud afterward of how Yoogli and Zim both turned and doubled over for a moment, clutching their spooches.

It was Zim that recovered first and snapped back at him, "The shock of having a lekku completely removed would kill any smeet! And most adults..." He reluctantly added. Of all the various tortures Dib had inflicted on him, the shoves, kicks, punches and all else, the worst by far had been the few times when he'd gotten it in his big dumb head to pull on his lekku.

Realizing it too, Dib felt a little guilty about that now. But thankfully, Yoogli spoke up before he could dwell on it too long. "Zim, Dib, could you guys do one more test? Zim, I need you to rub a bit at the area that was cut, and Dib, I need you to tell me if there is any remaining sensation. There shouldn't be, it's probably long since healed over..."

Zim looked unsure, but Dib just sighed and shrugged. "Go ahead, Zim. Or if you're too grossed out, I'm sure Yoogli wouldn't mind-"

He knew he wouldn't have to finish that sentence. Zim immediately reached over again, taking the tip and holding it up with one hand, and with the index finger of his second hand, he felt down the underside of it, reluctant to immediately touch the actual injured area. Dib couldn't really feel where Zim was holding the tip at all, but when his finger had reached the bottom of the underside, an electric feeling started to go up and down his spine. At first it was mostly like a forced shiver, no pleasure or pain associated, just a vague discomfort since it couldn't be controlled.

But the closer Zim got to the cut area, the more intense it got. When he was nearly at the base, his back was rigid and his head was starting to throb with a fast-growing headache. He was about to mention it to Yoogli, but suddenly, when Zim finally touched the cut spot, a literal electric spark went off between them, shocking the both of them.

Zim yelped, scurried back, and quickly pulled his singed finger back into his mouth to cool it. Besides the momentary shock he was fine. But Dib was now rolling on the ground howling in excruciating pain. His head felt like it was splitting for a moment, and it felt like every nerve, every vein in his body was being individually electrocuted. The pain shocked him over again about three times, and then the fourth was more like a throb. It was still painful, but not as overwhelming as it was before. The shock had been white-hot and unbearably painful, while the throb was an uncomfortable heat and moderately painful. It was like a pulsing bruise throughout his body, but not so bad as to cause him to cry out again, though he did groan.

Then, in only a matter a seconds, the lingering pain just as quickly turned into an equally overwhelming sense of euphoria. All the nerves that had just been shocked now felt as if they were simultaneous being massaged by microscopic fingers. Dib's spine rolled involuntarily with electric shivers, and his head, well frankly, it felt like there was a gigantic rave going on inside.

But it was too overwhelmingly good to actually be enjoyed, especially because of how fast and unexpectedly it had come on and in front of the present company. Dib struggled to regain control of his limbs and get out of there quickly. He fell the first time, and wobbled the second, before finally getting up and sprinting to his room, setting the door to lock-mode behind him. His face completely red and most of the rest of his skin bright pink, he tore off his clothes faster than he ever had in his life and dove beneath the covers of his bed.

Honest to god, he didn't even really want to do what his body was demanding of him - He literally needed to. And he couldn't even pretend he was thinking of Gretchen or Jessica or ANY of the girls from his high school, his mind was consumed, possessed, by thoughts of Zim. Thoughts of green skin writhing just like his was now, thoughts of his tongue sliding over ever inch of his alien body, especially his antennae, and oh god that was so weird and SO wrong, but his body responded to it like fuel to flame, and despite biting down hard on his pillow, the Irkens could still hear the uncontrollably loud groan.

Blushing brighter than he ever had in his life, Zim glared over at Yoogli, "Did you KNOW-?"

"I swear to Irk I didn't!" He squeaked back. Zim was about to reach over and smack him anyways, but the smaller Irken was saved when GIR suddenly fell on top of Zim's head and grabbed his cheeks, causing him to flail.

"MASTER~! WHYYYY IS DIIIIB MAKIN' BUFFALO NOISES?!"

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Dib didn't come out of his room for a full three days after that. Yoogli only once knocked, that night when Zim had retired to his own quarters, to inquire if he was alright. Dib stiffly responded that he was fine, but requested to be left alone for a while. Zim didn't try to talk to him at all.

When he finally did come out, he did so with a red face and his trenchcoat pulled tightly around his body. Zim was at the control panel, and when he saw Dib emerge, he immediately averted his eyes and growled a little. But Dib wouldn't let him get the first word in, he immediately spoke up, "Look, Zim! What happened the other day, was COMPLETELY -involuntary-! I had absolutely NO control over my body, okay!"

Zim looked back at him, his expression more than a little disgusted and embarrassed, but it was mostly in himself, and he actually wasn't as judgmental as Dib had expected him to be. "Ugh... I know, Dib, I believe you..." He replied as if he was just as mentally exhausted as Dib was, despite both of them getting plenty of sleep. "That sometimes happens if the lekku is touched gently - We didn't expect any of your nerves there to still be intact, but, uh, I guess some of them still are. But clearly faulty. Or that shock might have had something to do with it maybe, but we're still not sure what that was even about, never seen a lekku do that... Then again, we've never seen a case of someone having their lekku cut like yours was... Either way, I suggest we just not talk about what happened afterward ever again..." He concluded in an awkward rush.

Wow, he really lucked out on this one - Dib had expected Zim to never let him live it down. "Yeah, agreed..." He sighed right away and sat in the chair opposite from him, crossing his legs and trying to play it cool. Zim at least didn't know what he was thinking when it happened. Besides that, there was much more important things to think about. "It's still pretty hard to believe... All this time, I was an alien just like you..."

Zim glared at him, "Don't kid yourself, Dib-worm. You are NOT just like me. You are NOT an Irken just because you share some of our DNA. You are a Hybrid, and that comes with a -completely- different set of rules regarding your status in Irken society."

Dib didn't really care about Zim and his people's stupid rules, just like he never cared much for the rules humanity tried to impose on him either, but just out of curiousity he asked, rather derisively, "Like what?"

"Well first of all, you'd have to actually be accepted as a proper Hybrid, and you never would be!" Zim snapped back at him. "If all you got from your Irken DNA is a single lekku that doesn't even work right, it's just -not- gonna happen. I've never even seen an official Hybrid that didn't at least have green skin and two lekku. If the empire finds out about Yoogli teaching you Inner Irken without you being approved as an official Hybrid first, he'll probably still be executed..."

He conveniently declined to mention that technically, he too would be executed if the empire ever found out about what he'd caused Dib to experience. "As Yoogli said before, simple touches between Hybrids and pure Irkens is allowed, but sexual contact is strictly forbidden." He gave him a very intense stare that clearly translated to, 'So don't get any ideas.' "Though, sexual contact is forbidden even between pure Irkens too, unless it's been approved..." He added.

Dib just glared back, his face still red. "Who makes all these rules anyways? Your Tallest?" He guessed.

Zim reached over and flicked his ear. "No, idiot! The Tallest have the most influence over introducing new rules and getting rid of pre-existing ones, but it still has to be approved by the Control Brain."

He rubbed his ear but didn't reciprocate the violence. "Control Brain...?" Sounded like some straight-up Orwellian shit to Dib.

"Yes, the Control Brain!" Zim confirmed. "It decides the rules that we live by and governs over us via our PAKs!" Or at least, it was supposed to...

"So, a machine controls how you guys live your lives...?" Dib was starting to be pretty glad to have been born on Earth again.

"Duh! It's a Brain, and it Controls us! What's so hard to get about that?" Zim crossed his arms.

Dib's mouth fell open slightly. "Um... Everything? Like, why? Just why?"

"Eh?!" Zim glared at him, "You hypocrite - Don't you stinky worm-babies have your own stupid version of the Control Brain, 'Government'?"

Dib immediately shook his head, "Uh, no. I mean I guess it's close, but still. That's a bunch of stupid humans getting together and making rules - If it's a stupid rule you don't agree with, you don't have to follow it, you just got to make sure you don't get caught. But you're saying, a machine somewhere, actually literally controls how you live your life via the machine you are dependant on to live, and you have no problem with that...?"

"Exactly!" Zim nodded, "And by the way, this is why you'd never be accepted as an Irken, Dib. NO Irken would ever question the Control Brain."

"That's really not true, Zim..." Yoogli quietly spoke up from the back of the room.

Both Zim and Dib stared back at him in shock for a moment. Dib had begun to smile a little, hopeful for his mother's species, just before Zim declared, "You really have gone defective, Yoogli. You're SO going to get yourself executed when we get back."

"Maybe I am defective!" Yoogli snapped back, suddenly more bold than usual. "And a coward too, because I would have never been one of the ones who would speak out against the Control Brain if I weren't in another dimension where I'm sure it can't reach me... But I know there are some Irkens who oppose the Control Brain. Much more than that are like me too, they don't approve of it but they're too scared to speak their true thoughts aloud around the many who are fully under the influence of the Control Brain!"

"This is nonsense, Yoogli-" Zim began to talk over him, but this time, the shorter Irken wouldn't let him.

"NO, it's not, Zim! A lot of the rules imposed on us ARE stupid and unfair! And frankly, I'm really surprised you of all Irkens is saying this, because somehow you've managed to get away with breaking more rules than anybody! Especially that one time - Many of us know the truth, we know you were working for Tallest Red, and a lot of my best comrades were saved by your actions, but you KILLED Tallest Miyuki and Tallest Orange to get Tallest Red into power so he could change the rules about-Mmf!"

When Zim realized what he was getting at he very quickly and harshly clamped his hand over Yoogli's mouth, glaring intensely down at him. "Yoogli, if you ever speak of that matter again, I will leave you in this dimension to rot." He stated very seriously, making Yoogli turn pale with fear. Then Zim added, his voice both ice cold and heated with fury. "And besides, we both know the only reason you're bothering with the Dib-worm is because you're desperate. Once we're back in our dimension you know you'll abandon him for your real Irken comrades in a squee-beat."

Yoogli mouth dropped at the cruel comment, but he knew it stung more because Zim was mostly right. He longed to see his old best comrades, the ones he never realized he even had until he was sure he'd never see them again. What a fool he'd been, succumbing to his despair and trying to kill himself in that black hole - And like a coward, the second he actually crossed over into the darkness he immediately regretted it and wanted nothing more than to live to see his friends again. Now he finally had that chance, and he couldn't deny, as eternally grateful as he was to Dib for being there for him the last few months, and even more so to Orby for keeping him sane over the long years of solitude, neither of them would keep him from finding that one special Irken he really wanted to see.

But he refused to let Zim shame him for it, either. "Yes, I admit it, Zim - I want to see my best comrades again more than anything. But desperation is NOT the only reason I treated Dib like a comrade - He's actually just a genuinely nice being, unlike you!" He glared back up at the taller Irken defiantly, and when he began to speak again, this time he was speaking Inner Irken, quickly and quietly so that Dib couldn't catch what was being said, "So if you just happen to like him yourself, you really ought to start showing it, because if you think you're the only Irken in -trillions- who would be interested in Dib - Well, -I- wouldn't bet on those odds, comrade. And you can hit me if you want," He added in a hiss as Zim's hand twitched. "But I'll still be right and I bet Dib would agree with me, too."

Yoogli's words struck Zim harder than a fist ever could, and right in the feel-maker. He actually hadn't ever considered that other Irkens might find interest in Dib, and it didn't settle well with him at all, though he refused to admit why just yet.

Zim hissed fiercely back in Inner Irken, "Teach him whatever you want about our culture, and it'll be on YOUR head for doing so, but if I catch you saying anything about me to him, or touching him again at ALL, I will -maim- you." Threatening another Irken was almost unheard of, but Zim had had it up to his lekku with the uppity shrimp.

Yoogli wasn't about to press Zim any further than that, and quickly retreated away from him. Dib also returned to his own room, but not before getting in the last word, "You know, Zim, I put a lot of trust in you the other day, letting you touch my lekku... I kinda wish you'd trust me back." Then before Zim could reply, he shut the door behind him.

Zim sighed, thinking, 'Great...' As if he needed another reason to regret doing almost everything he'd ever done in his life...

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Dib was sleeping peacefully a few months later, when he was suddenly woken up by Orby flashing colored lights in his face. "Dib, wake up. You are needed to perform a task."

He groaned lightly and then yawned, reluctantly getting up from his cot and running a hand through his hair, which was growing back although it hadn't reached it's previous length yet. He felt for his lekku underneath. No noticeable changes had occured. It was still hard to feel except for the very bottom of the underside, but nobody was going to chance touching that part again after what happened the last time. "Whadya need, Orby..." He asked past another yawn, still waking up.

"Follow me, Dib." The device replied seriously, floating out the open door. Dib obeyed and followed after it, and it led him to the control panel. Yoogli was sleeping against a wall nearby, which meant Zim was probably sleeping too, while the ship was on autopilot. Orby then instructed him, "Dib, I need you to move the ship slightly Northeast forty thousand miles ahead and then head in that direction."

"What." Dib dropped the word in immediate confusion, looking out across the screen and using his new Irken vocabulary to identify what was beyond. Going in the direction Orby was telling him to would lead them into another black hole. "You've got to be kidding me..."

"I'm afraid it's the only way, Dib." Orby replied regrettably. "Whenever there is a wormhole to get into a dimension, there has to be at least one other that leads out of it again. But this is the only one in all of this dimension that will lead you back to your own. And unfortunately, it will be much harder to get back than it was getting here. This black hole is much more turbulent than the last. Your chances were about fifty-fifty last time, this time, the odds of you surviving, even with Orby's help, is slightly less than ten percent."

"Shit..." Dib hissed through his teeth. It was terrifying enough to go through a black hole when he had no choice, but to actually do it purposefully knowing the chances were that dire? Well, it was a huge leap of faith Orby was asking of him, to say the least.

"This is also why the device woke you before Zim awoke. He would very likely object and try to stop you, but it IS the -only- way. So you must hurry before Zim wakes up and realizes what you're doing."

"Uh, no, hold on - Fuck that." Dib glared defiantly at the machine, "I'm kinda not so sure I want to do that myself? At least, not until you tell me a few more things. Don't give me that 'classified' bullshit because I'm not going to do this unless you tell me what I want to know - And I have a right to know! I'm just as much her offspring as Gaz!"

The device didn't reply, the purple glow only turned to a slightly more magenta hue. So Dib went on, "Why did our mother leave us to come to this dimension? What is threatening the Earth? Why was Gaz so important to her but not me, why choose her, probably the most selfish person in the world, to save the Earth and not me? I would do it in a heartbeat and Gaz obviously didn't want to be here! And most of all, why on Earth did you choose to create me and Gaz with my father and then leave us?" That part had been bugging him especially, and he couldn't hide the thickness of pain and anger in his voice.

Orby suddenly stopped glowing, it's levitation seemed to power down and it floated to the ground with a soft 'thump'. Then, from a circular groove directly at the top of the sphere, a ghostly holographic figure emerged. An Irken female, with rare golden-brown eyes and pale olivine skin, and of a rather tall height for an Irken, about 5'9. Dib had to stare at her eyes in particular for more than a moment - His eyes were a darker, chocolate brown, but he remembered his sister's eyes having that sort of golden hue...

And the look in his mother's eyes - They were stern with him, but also full of regret and disappointment in herself. "...Alright Dib, if you really want to know." She resigned, her voice now sounding almost completly like her old self, with barely any metallic hint left to her tone. "First of all, in regards to creating you and your sister... My consent was not a factor."

Dib's eyes went wide and he covered his mouth in shock. And here he had thought he couldn't hate his father any more than he already did...

Gazlene's spectre went on without his opinion of her past plight. "I was the first Irken to ever land on your planet, and I paid a high toll for it... But you should know first how I came there. On Irk, my eye color is considered inferior to all others, so I was already resented for having my height in my eye color caste. But I was different from other Irkens in another way too. I was a rare defect of Irken that was not properly connected to the Control Brain. I loved to study technology and science, but I had another passion, one that was supposed to be hidden and forbidden - Tajik!" She exclaimed reverently, and though Yoogli had never said such a word, Dib immediately know instinctively that it was their word for 'magic'.

"Since I was a smeet I experienced weird happenings that most other Irkens couldn't, wouldn't, understand or try to explain... I learned early not to scare them with my oddities for my own sake. But I embraced my differences in secret, and I studied every recorded paranormal phenomenon that existed on my planet, met some of the few others like me... But it wasn't nearly enough. For such a massive planet, Irk has very little tajik. Most planets are the same, tajik is usually small resource. So in my spare time, I created a machine that searched for tajik. As you well know, the planet Irk is massive compared to your home planet. And yet strangely, this tiny little mudball had more tajik than anywhere else I'd ever seen, more than a hundred times more than Irk. I had to see this strange place for myself. I was not allowed to leave my station as a research scientist at that time, but I did it anyways..."

Then, the look in Gazlene's eyes turned sadder than ever. "I abandoned my own home planet to come to yours... But the second my ship passed your atmosphere, I was seized by a terrible tajik. It was terrifying - My ship went completely dead and fell into an ocean, I was trapped. Then a horrible creature, with curled horns and sharp teeth and hateful, hungry eyes manifested itself in my ship, bounding me with a tajik much stronger than my own. It said it was one of the guardians of planet Earth, and that as of the first of my kind to trespass on this planet, I owed it a sacrifice, or else I and all future Irkens to visit Earth would be killed. I had no choice but to agree. The next thing I knew, I was bound instead in the laboratory of Professor Membrane..."

Now fury was gathering in his mother's voice, "...He took my DNA from me and combined it with his own. He created several copies until two stable ones emerged. Then he forcibly used my body to incubate them..." Dib burned with shame knowing this terrible truth, while his mother went on, "The demon guardian visited me once more, just before the HORRID birth-" Her spirit shuddered visibly at that memory. Her species obviously didn't typically do things that way anymore, and it was especially traumatizing to have been forced to do it. "And it told me that I would be the one to pick which would be the sacrifice, and which would be spared..."

Gazlene shook her head with regret. "When you two were born..." Dib suddenly realized as she said this, Gaz was never his 'little sister' after all, another of his father's lies - They were actually more like twins. "I looked at you both, and I didn't even have to think about it before I chose. The girl looked more like me, but you... You looked just like -him-." Her voice was so full of hate. Dib knew it was more for his father, it still hurt to know he caused her pain too. "So I chose you to be the sacrifice..."

Dib swallowed painfully and lowered his head while his mother's ghost continued to explain, "Apparently, your planet needs at least four sacrificed souls at a time to continue it's frail and constantly teetering existence. One of these souls is chosen to be driven to madness at a time, and it collects the energy of stolen souls to feed to the Earth's tajik forces, sort of like a cannibal. Without this recycling process, the tajik on Earth would become unstable and destroy the planet. Your father was supposed to be one of these sacrifices, but apparently he sold his soul to the guardian to avoid his fate and have someone else take his place."

Jesus fucking Christ, Dib thought, could he get any worse? Reproductive raping the first Irken to ever come to Earth, then forcing her to bear a child so he could basically sacrifice it to what sounded a lot like the DEVIL?

But apparently he could indeed get worse, as his mother continued, "The first year after the birth, the professor tried to keep me. He disguised me as a human and paraded me around as his wife. I despised it, I loathed him and I NEEDED to get away. No matter how beautiful and special your planet was, I couldn't appreciate it as a prison. I wanted to bring Gaz with me, but I couldn't, I was barely able to get my craft away from your father and escape by myself. Your sister always had superior Irken intelligence, and I taught her early how to speak with me. She promised to come after me when she was older and stronger, and in the meantime, I searched for a new source of tajik."

Dib finally interrupted, "You weren't scared to go looking again after what happened on Earth?"

"I guess I should have been." Gazlene answered sadly. "But I was power-hungry. Somehow, giving birth to you and Gaz made my natural tajik abilities ten times stronger than they had ever been. As terrifying as my experience on Earth was, what I gained from it astounded me, and I wanted more. My device detected a huge source of tajik beyond the black hole, and desperate for the power I desired, and feeling at the time like I had nothing else to live for if I failed, I went in search of it. I made it to the planet where the tajik had originated from, and my tajik grew so much so fast my body could barely contain it. It was everything I ever wanted, I suddenly knew things about the past and the future. But the power came with a catch - I finally had enough tajik to do what I always wanted most to do, but I barely survived the experience, and I knew I wouldn't for long. I knew my weakened mortal body wouldn't last long enough to be reunited with my daughter, so I had to use my remaining time wisely to leave her a legacy worth seeking instead..."

"Orby?" Dib guessed unnecessarily. "But she said you..."

"I was already dying, but I took control of my own fate at the last moment - I had to, to transplant my memories, my tajik, and my very spirit, into the device." She explained shortly, then looked soulfully down at her son. "Dib... If I had known then what I know now, I would have wanted to choose you instead. You look just like him, but you're really nothing like him at all... You've got a caring soul." Dib was starting to feel himself tear up before she even added, "...I'm proud of you." And when she said that, her spirit reaching out towards him with her transparent gloved hand, he couldn't fight them any longer.

"However," Gazlene went on seriously, "I -still- would have had to do things just the way I did. Gaz has an unprecedented amount of tajik, more than I've ever seen in a single mortal being. Only she has the power to achieve my life's greatest purpose. But she sent you instead. You see Dib, the only way it would even be possible for you to leave the galaxy you were born in alive is if your sister willingly took your place as the sacrifice. She promised she'd help me achieve my dream, and I want to believe she meant it, but it's clear to me now that protecting you from the fate I so selfishly imposed on you was just as important to her..."

Dib still wasn't sure he could bring himself to believe his sister had actually always been just as altruistic as she was selfish. Fuck being part alien and his mom being a ghost-in-a-robot - Gaz being nice, that was the part that was really blowing his mind. "Then, the force that's threatening Earth..." Dib focused on instead, beginning to guess at it himself.

"The so-called guardian of Earth." Gazlene confirmed. "Gaz will not endure being under his control any longer than she needs to. As soon as I realized she sent you and took your place, I knew what it would mean. She will only tolerate her role under him as long as she needs to gather her strength. I am sure your sister could probably become strong enough to defeat the evil one who is in charge of the destructive tajik system the Earth runs on and who chooses it's sacrifices, but I am not sure if she would be able to create something in it's place to control the Earth's massive tajik flow. If she cannot, you must take your place as sacrifice back, and give the device to her so she can fulfill her promise."

Dib's tears were starting to dry, and new ones weren't joining them. He just felt kind of numb now. Deep down he always wanted to believe there was just a little love between him and his sister, but he'd always had very strong doubts about it too, and despite everything he'd just heard, he still did. "But, Gazlene..." He went on, using her name since we was not sure if she'd appreciate him calling her 'mom'. "What if Gaz really doesn't want to do what you asked her, what if she wants to stay on Earth?" He couldn't help but wonder if his mother's spirit wanted to believe in Gaz's goodness because she 'looked more like her', just like she'd resented Dib for resembling Professor Membrane. Which made Dib realize, apparently Gaz didn't really look like what he thought she had all his life. He concluded, "And, what IS it you wanted her to help you do?"

The spirit sighed a breath it could no longer really take. "...If Gaz does not wish to help me after all, my life will go unfulfilled, and you will be free. No one else but your sister has the power to manifest the legacy I left to her and fulfill my fondest but most impossible dream... As for what that dream of mine was..."

The holographic image faded away for a moment, but her voice remained, "Steer the ship towards the black hole, and I swear I'll tell you..."

Dib took a deep, slow and shaky breath, approaching the control panel and setting it's new course. The gravitational pull became stronger by the second, quickly pulling them closer to the pitch black disc of emptiness. Just before they reached the event horizon, Dib looked expectantly back at the device.

Gazlene's image reappeared one last time, but it was flickering, struggling to maintain itself. It must have taken a cosiderable amount of tajik to manifest her spirit to talk to him. But her spectre was smiling at her son, full of pride and gratitude. "Thank you, Dib... I will now tell you my dream, which I dearly hope you and Gaz can work together to help me fulfill. I hope you can save both our planets, countless humans and Irkens alike, and many other planets and species too. My dream was..."

Her image faded away completely and Orby rose into the air once more, glowing purplish-red. "...To destroy the Control Brain."

The blackness swallowed them, and the ship began to violently shake.

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(( A.N. Hey guys, sorry if this was a little long-winded, lots of plot to get out! And I realize Gaz may seem a little unlike her canon self - Her canon self is still her canon childhood in this story, and even as an adult she is still very selfish. But the canon also shows her with some very strange powers sometimes - As scary it is when she wants to doom someone, she's also shown with the power to "restore the natural order". This fic is very much centered around that. It's very much science vs magic, free will vs the control brain... So yeah, I realize some IZ fans kinda scoff at magic but Dib IS shown in canon using it in "Gaz Taster of Pork", soooo, I think this should make at least a little sense considering that... Or if you think Irkens not all being slaves to their system is weird and un-canon, same thing. If you really just don't think it makes sense compared strictly to canon, well, then by all means think of it as an AU instead, I don't mind. =P Alright, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review! ^^ ))


	6. The Puppet

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Dib's torso slammed against the controls as the ship lurched forward in the darkness, spinning and hitting unknown debris along the way while being pulled down in a massive drain. He could hear the ship creaking, as the metal itself was being stretched.

Dib clutched onto whatever he could, willing the ship by thought alone, please just stay in one piece, please come out of the other side, please let everyone come out of this alive...

But then, abruptly, the ship came to such a sudden stop, Dib's whole body slammed against the dash and front window. For a moment, in the disorientation of the impact and the terror of the unknown, he thought for a brief second that they surely had just been compressed into a singularity. But the lucky fool had merely smacked his head too hard.

While under his dizzy spell, Dib thought he could see his mother's spirit again, hovering above him and urging him, "Dib, get up. Wake up. Get to your knees and bow." She instructed him seriously. Dib groaned and struggled to move. He felt sore all over and extremely heavy, as if his bones were made of lead. He managed to obey her, though it took him what felt like hours.

When he was finally on his hands and knees, looking down and out the window into the black stillness, he felt a strange and sudden sensation, as if the darkness he was looking at, was looking back at him, and it was scarier than hell. Dib suddenly realized that the ship was suspended in a nosedive at the very bottom of the black hole. He had one chance to get right whatever he had to, and if he didn't, they really would be crushed into a singularity, pulverized by their own ship.

The darkness suddenly asked Dib and Gazlene, completely silent but also roaring louder than a thousand oceans, directly into their minds, their very souls, 'DO YOU THINK YOURSELVES GODS? HAVE YOU THE MERIT TO JUSTIFY YOUR SUPREME ARROGANCE?'

Gazlene spoke up first for Dib, who was grateful for that, because he really had no idea how to answer that, and he was more than a little distracted by the blood he knew should be running down his face, but felt instead like it was crawling, and the concussion making him think of such silly things at such a serious time. "Forgive us for our arrogance, but we swear we will justify it in time - We swear we will entertain you, just give us safe passage this one last time..."

'YOU WERE GIVEN SAFE PASSAGE BEFORE AND NOW YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO TEMPT FATE... WE DO APPRECIATE SUCH BOLDNESS.' The void admitted, and it felt as if it were smiling so large, it was big enough to consume them. 'JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU CAN OFFER US...'

Gazlene growled like a purr back to the black expanse. "We're going to affect our entire multiverse. We're going to fight hoards and tame dragons, change minds and save lives. You WILL be entertained." She insisted.

Dib could suddenly feel the darkness staring directly and only at him, 'DO YOU THINK YOU CAN ENTERTAIN US, DIB MEMBRANE?'

Dib balled his fists, sticking a thumbs-up against the window, and forced himself to stretch his lips into a smile - The simple gesture that would normally take two seconds felt like it had taken ten minutes to achieve, and to his ears, his voice sounded like it was coming out in super slow motion, and felt like it was being strained through a colander to come out of his throat. "Suuure thiiing, noooo prooobleeem..." His answer wasn't sufficient, but it was all he could manage under the massive pressure he was fighting against.

Suddenly, from the corner of Dib's vision and just beyond Gazlene's specter, he saw GIR's eyes glowing in the dark. Strangely enough, his glow wasn't blue or even red, it was purple. He looked to be in serious mode, eyes narrowed. Then, to Dib's slowly-forming shock (even his emotions were going in slow-motion, it seemed) his sister Gaz's voice emerged from the pint-sized robot's metal mouth. "You'll be so fucking entertained you'd shit yourself if you had an anus."

"Gaaazzz...?" Dib groaned weakly in recognition.

"Shut up, Dib. I'm trying to save your stupid life here." Her voice snapped back at him irritably, and then she addressed the darkness once more. "I will conquer the conquerors, tame every beast that lives in darkness and light. I will rise above even my own mother's -astronomical- expectations. You'd better believe YOU, and several other species, will be VERY -entertained- by the time I'm done existing, to say the least. But I NEED the contents of this ship to do it..."

'THAT SOUNDS PROMISING... BUT THERE IS ONE MORE THING WE WANT TO BE DONE...' It wasn't clear who exactly was being addressed, but they all listened intently to the request, which seemed to take forever, as the disembodied voice groaned it out slowly, 'FAAAALL... IIIIN... LOOOOVE...'

"Ugh!" Gaz's voice groaned back as soon as she heard it, clearly less than pleased about the request, and the violet robot eyes got grumpy-looking too. "Come on, you've got to be kidding!"

The ship suddenly felt as if gigantic hands had taken it and shaken it. Dib knocked his big head against several things he couldn't even see, until Gaz's voice finally relented, "Alright, alright, I'll do it! Damn!" The robot fixed a terrifyingly intense stare at the human who was staring at it. "Dib, you owe me BIG TIME for this!"

The shaking didn't stop, and the feeling of falling resumed. The darkness droned one last word, the volume of the disembodied voice tapering away as they were sucked down the exact middle of the vortex. 'DEEEEAL...'

Dib smacked his head one last time on the way down, and then all of his sensations went dark.

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"Dib? Dib! Wake up!" Zim smacked Dib's cheeks lightly, and Dib's eyes flickered. Zim sounded kinda worried.

The human hybrid swallowed at his dry and thick throat and slowly forced his eyes to remain open, though he was still dizzy. "M' up..." He half-answered.

Zim took a breath of relief. "Good! STAY AWAKE now, smelly concussed Dib-fool!" He shouted right after, and then both he and Yoogli began to patch him up - Apparently they had a very temporary truce about Dib-touching only while he was severely injured, though they both looked pretty banged up and exhausted too. Waking up halfway through your only hour-long nap a day in the middle of falling down a black hole was probably about the rudest way to wake someone ever, Dib suddenly realized, and was doubly grateful for the help considering that.

The Irkens patched his head and everywhere else that was openly bleeding, thankfully though it was mostly bruises. Then they gave him some water, and he slowly began to feel himself start to revive.

But then both Irkens forgot about Dib for a moment when their PAKs began to beep, alerting them of incoming messages. Zim merely looked surprised and vaguely interested by the phenomenon, but Yoogli outright gasped, shaking as he took out the same kind of handheld device that Zim was checking. Dib watched the two aliens as they read the messages they had gotten. Zim's face looked intense for a moment, then it brightened into an excited expression.

Yoogli, on the other hand, looked so incredibly happy he seemed to be almost about to choke on his own joy. His eyes quickly overflowed with tears, the liquid rushing down his cheeks like a river. "Oh, by Irk...!" He breathed, wiping uselessly as his cheeks with the back his hand. "You guys, you guys! Listen! I've just suddenly got a huge backlog of messages, fifteen years worth! And they're all from -Leevee-!"

Dib raised an eyebrow, the corners of his lips quirking upwards. He didn't recognize the name but he could tell by how Yoogli said it that it was a very special person. "Who?"

The littlest alien was bouncing on the balls of his feet. "My best comrade, his name is Leevee! He's been sending me messages every year since I disappeared! He just sent another one a few days ago! He never forgot about me! Here, listen-"

Yoogli briefly cleared his throat and began to read the most recent text from his long-lost friend. "'Yoogli - It's now been fifteen years since you disappeared, and I miss you as much as I ever did. They say time heals, but I don't want it to. I don't want to accept you're dead, and I won't. I won't accept that the ones who sent you away were justified in how they treated you... You and I were never very bold. I think that's why we got along so well, we were a lot alike. I'm still not very bold, but your disappearance changed me..."

He took a shaky breath and went on, "Do you remember our comrade Shala? She's invited me to a gathering three months from now. I could get into quite a bit of trouble if I'm found at this particular gathering... But I'm going anyways. It sounds like it's going to be fun, and I'm tired of living my life the way I have so far, ever the dutiful slave... I want more, and if it costs me my life to finally get to live, then so be it. I just wish I could do it with you. I know it's a long-shot, but Shala said I could invite someone if I trusted them. You're the only other person besides her that I trust, though. So if you actually get this message, you're invited to come. And hey, if you've made any new friends while you've been away, go ahead and bring them too..."

Yoogli chuckled softly, still wiping at his tears as he finished the note, "I'll write you again next year, and the year after that, until I'm dead or you're back, whichever comes first. Love always, your comrade, Leevee..."

"Aww, Yoogli, that's so great to hear!" Dib supplied, smiling big for the little Irken. "I bet you can't wait to see him again. And hey, you even got invited to a party!"

Yoogli couldn't reply, fresh tears had come to his eyes and his throat was too tight. But Zim went on over his sobs, deeming his news more important than Yoogli's blubbering. "Yes yes, that's very sweet and sentimental, IT MAKES ME SICK TO THE BELLY - But ZIM just won the LOTTERY!" He exclaimed, excitedly putting his hands up in triumph.

"The lottery?" Dib repeated doubtfully.

"Yes!" Zim confirmed, "And it's the GOOD lottery too!"

Oh yeah, nothing about that sounded weird at ALL. "So what, there's a BAD lottery...?" The human inquired, brows raised.

"Duh, Dib." Zim simply scoffed.

"Whatever..." Dib returned, shaking his head. "The only thing that matters is that we're finally back home in our own dimension..."

Zim blinked, realizing this indeed was the case. He'd been so busy not caring about Yoogli's good fortune and focusing on his own, he'd only just realized the newly arrived messages had to mean that they were indeed back in the dimension that those messages originated from. It would also explain what all that insane shaking he'd woken up to had been. "Well, that is good news..." He replied suspiciously, fury slowly passing over his features as he glanced back at Dib. "And how did we just happen to find ourselves so fortunate, hmm, Dib?"

"Well..." Dib began awkwardly. "Orby told me that the only way to get back home was to go through another black hole - So I did. And here we are!" He concluded with a nervous smile.

Zim did not smile and he was not the least bit nervous. His left eye twitched and he snapped, absolutely shrieking, "HAVE YOU A BLACK HOLE IN YOUR -BRAIN-, HUMAN?!"

"What? Oh come on, Zim!" Dib's jaw dropped. "It WORKED! We're back! You're seriously gonna bitch me out-"

"YOU TOOK CONTROL OF ZIM'S SHIP WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION!" Zim continued to screech right back.

Dib backed down a bit - He was right about that, and he should feel guilty. But bottom line, they were all alive and back home again, so he kept his nerve and steeled his voice. "I did, and I'm sorry, I should have consulted with you first. But Orby said you'd freak out if I told you, and I knew she was right, and we WERE right-"

"You have NO EXCUSE for this, DIB!" Zim interrupted fiercely, "You said you'd get Orby back to Earth on your own if you had to, but let's see your human hubris actually live up to the hype! You put my ship and by extension my LIFE in jeopardy! Not only OUGHT I abandon you on the next breathable planet, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'M GOING TO DO, YOU PIECE OF WORM SHIT!"

Yikes, little green shorty really was mad this time. It was a pretty bad insult itself to be called a worm like he normally did, but worm shit? That was going about as low as you could go. Dib couldn't deny the sour-piss feeling it gave him, stirring him to shout back, "FINE! Go ahead and do it then! I do NOT need you, Zim!" Wow, was that a dumb thing to say. Dib knew it right away, but he was too pissed off to listen to his rational side.

Yoogli was getting nervous just like he always did when they started to quarrel, but this time he actually intervened, "H-Hey guys, calm down! Dib, it wasn't okay to take Zim's ship without permission-But Zim, Dib would be entitled to a vessel of his own if he was accepted as a hybrid-"

But Zim quickly put the smaller Irken back in his place, and getting right in his face, "THE DIBWORM IS NOT AN OFFICIAL HYBRID AND HE NEVER WILL BE! HE'S AN ARROGANT LITTLE WORM AND HE NEEDS TO REMINDED OF HOW MUCH HE NEEDS ME AND -MY- SHIP! HE. IS. GONE!"

Zim then turned his back on both of them and headed to the control panels, finding a habitable planet and setting course for it. "We'll arrive at Dib's new home sweet home in four days. Neither of you speak to me until then." He told them coldly, heading into his room to be alone, away from their disappointed stares.

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The days passed slowly, but they finally arrived at the planet Zim had chosen. It was a medium-sized planet, about five times bigger than Earth, with saffron yellow land masses and emerald green seas. It was pretty to look at, but Dib just couldn't appreciate it knowing it could potentially be the last planet he lived, and possibly, died on.

He looked back at Zim only once, after they'd landed and Zim had opened the hatch to let the human out. "So you're seriously going to do this."

Zim growled back, "Do I need to literally kick your ass out of MY ship, Dib-pig?"

Dib scoffed and threw the pack of essential supplies he'd prepared over his back. "Whatever, I'm going."

The human jumped past the hatch and landed heavily on his feet, feeling like he'd suddenly gained twenty pounds. Gravity seemed to be a bit stronger here. It was at least breathable, but other than that there wasn't much going for the planet. The saffron yellow color came from miles of sand and large, dry, yellow bushes, but there didn't seem to be much in the way of edible-looking things.

Dib refused to beg Zim to let him back on. He was too proud to admit he needed him. But he decided to say one last thing as Zim closed the hatch on him, his voice thick. "...Thanks for everything, jerk."

Zim glared at him until the hatch had closed and obstructed his view, then he retreated to the control panel and took the ship back up in the air.

Dib looked around at the expanse surrounding him. The planet had two yellow suns, and both of them were beating down on him. It had to be at least a hundred and twenty degrees. If he didn't find shade and water soon, he'd be done for. So he headed off towards the second sun in the horizon, leaving a trail of footprints behind.

After walking for only an hour, Dib found himself too exhausted to go on without a rest. Between the heat and the change in gravity, his body was just too taxed to go on. He sat down next to one of the larger yellow bushes, letting the mass of it give him shade from the suns.

After he'd caught his breath he got back up again. There was nothing around except for the bushes, so he decided to inspect the one he'd just been resting against. There was nothing on the surface, but maybe if he was lucky there might be something edible further within in.

So Dib reached his hands into the dry yellow brush, feeling inside. It was rougher, like dirty cotton on the outside, but inside it was softer, like feather-down. Just about half a foot in, Dib's hand settled against something firm but also pliant, and warm. It almost felt like...

"Bwuaaaaack?"

Dib glanced to the left of him, where a yellow, feathery head on a long neck had emerged from underneath the body, cocking it's head curiously to the side at him. It had a huge, sharp curved beak, which it clucked curiously at Dib.

"...Shit. You're some kind of giant space chicken, aren't you."

"KWUAK!"

The long-necked fowl suddenly lunged at Dib, snapping at him with it's menacing beak. Dib jumped back just in time and began running away as fast as he could under the intense heat and the gravity. Thankfully for him, the lumbering creature was somewhat slow itself, but it managed to almost keep up with Dib, constantly snapping at his heels. It was only a matter of time before Dib ran out of energy, but before that happened he dared to turn his head around and holler at the beast, "SOME DAY PEOPLE WILL BE DIPPING YOUR RIB-MEAT IN BARBEQUE SAUCE, BITCH!"

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Yoogli had been pacing anxiously since Zim departed, and just when they were about to pass the atmosphere, he couldn't stand it anymore. "Zim! Are you seriously not gonna go back for him? I'm sure he learned his lesson by now! He could seriously die if you leave him down there too long!"

That did make Zim feel guilty, but that in turn only made him angry. He WAS planning on going back for Dib in a few days or so, but the planet was a little harsh, and Dib was still recovering from the injuries he'd sustained days ago, as well-deserved as they were. Still, he wasn't interested in being lectured by the shrimp about it. "Shut UP, Yoogli, or I may just go back and leave you behind here as well!"

Something in the little Irken's head suddenly snapped, and he shoved at Zim's chest with all his might, knocking him back a couple steps. "FINE! Go ahead and do it, but you're gonna hear a thing or two from me! First of all, you KNOW you were exiled just like me, and while you were, did anyone ever message you even ONCE like my best comrade Leevee has been doing for me every year? WHO has been paying attention to YOU all these years, Zim? HMM?!"

That cut deep, and the pain made Zim almost as irritated as Yoogli, but he was also unnerved by his sudden boldness. It was true, over the long years of exile, Dib was the one who made his life worth living. Still, he tried to cover up his shame by stretching out the truth. "For your information, NOT THAT IT'S ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS-Tallest Red himself had been checking in on me from time to time!"

Yoogli let his mouth drop and slapped a hand to his cheek, feigning shock, and replied in a heavily sarcastic tone, "You're KIDDING, Zim! The guy whose butt is only still sitting on a throne because of your actions and your continued silence about them, HE checked in on you?"

Zim growled deeply, "I have NO idea what you're talking about-"

"Of course you don't." Yoogli nodded, knowing that that was actually partly the truth. "You really are oblivious to the fact that you're one of the most selfish Irkens to have ever existed. You are completely unaware of the fact that you get away with breaking rules and putting yourself above all of your fellow Irkens all the time, something most of the rest of us really would be executed for. For some reason nobody can understand, the Control Brain just goes stupid whenever you're around - That's why you get away with things all the time, that's why Red chose you for that particular mission, and that's why virtually every other member of your species gets nervous whenever you show up and wants nothing to do with you!"

Zim couldn't deny the hurt look that briefly passed over his features, but Yoogli continued on without letting him reply, "That's why I'm telling you now Zim, it doesn't make any sense for you to be using the Control Brain and it's stupid standards as an excuse for why you won't accept Dib as your comrade. In fact it's downright insulting to all the Irkens who have laid down their lives defying the Control Brain! Dib has been there for you, and he's probably the only Irken, Hybrid or otherwise, that even wants to be! You're crazy, Zim, but you're not crazy enough to turn your back on the only real friend you've got, are you?"

Zim gritted his teeth, unable to form a reply at first, and his fingers twitched, sorely tempted to smack the smaller Irken for his insolence. In fact he was about to, but then GIR showed up between them, sucking on some kind of red drink. His eyes were blue at first, but then they started to flash between blue and red, and then finally, they lit up purple, and to Zim's utter shock and deep terror, the sound of the Gaz-beast's voice emerged from the mouth of his robotic servant. "You really SHOULD listen to him, Zim. But I know you're not gonna, so you'd BETTER listen to me, instead."

"EH?! GAZ?! WHAT do you think you're doing in my robot, filthy girl-monster?!" Zim took two steps back from his metal slave, more unnerved than he'd ever been.

"Hehehe..." Gaz's voice chuckled back coolly. "Did you know one of my favorite past-times as a kid was turning my stuffed animals into demonic robot slaves? Good practice for working on a real Irken SIR, busted though it was... But hey, it was special. Not every day you find a SIR unit on Earth, let alone one that's somehow been powered by tajik... Are you getting it yet, Zim?" The robot gave his master a dark smile that sent a shiver down Zim's spine. "GIR has been my puppet for years. I've had control of him pretty much ever since you landed on our mud-ball."

"Th-That's not, it c-can't, y-you're-" Zim tried to stammer back, horrified as he realized how many things that meant. Gaz had seen all of his base, Gaz had multiple opportunities to poison him, Gaz had seen him NAKED in the shower-!

"Listen UP, Zim." She barked back, getting short with him. "I do NOT have all day to piss around with you! You are gonna GO and GET Dib NOW and you're gonna help him get back to Earth alive, because if you don't, and I have to drop what I'm doing to come get you, I am going to DOOM you SO HARD, you'll wish every ATOM in your body HAD NEVER EVEN EXISTED!"

GIR's eyes went solid red, and Zim screeched in horror as some kind of bright red liquid started spraying from the top of it's head. It was just the ketchup-smoothie it had been drinking, but it looked like something a lot more nasty than that. So Zim of course turned on his heels and ran for the control panel, turning the ship around and flying back to the planet's surface to look for Dib. "OKAY, OKAY!"

GIR's eyes immediately went back to blue and it squealed in it's own voice again, "YAY~!"

It took them a while to find the human, as he'd moved from the original spot he'd been left. But then Yoogli suddenly shouted, "Look!" and pointed to the corner of the window, where they could see Dib was being held by the tail of his trench-coat in the beak of a giant yellow bird, and being shaken quite aggressively.

Zim aimed carefully and fired one of the ship's lasers at the creature's neck, severing the head from the body. Dib fell along with the decapitated head, and landed with an 'oof' in the sand. Zim then took the ship down to the ground and opened the hatch, marching up to Dib and stopping next to his big head, nudging it with his toes. "Hey. We're even for the snake thing now."

Dib slowly smiled weakly up at the alien, accepting his hand as Zim offered it to him. He was still kinda pissed off at him, but he couldn't deny how glad he was that Zim had come back for him after all, and right in the nick of time. "Right... Thanks for coming back. I'm sorry again for taking control of your ship without permission. Neither of us should boss around or take control of the other. From now on I promise I'll consult with you before doing anything that concerns the both of us."

"Too right you will." Zim answered testily, but then he quickly added, "...But thanks for getting us back home again, too. I guess that means I owe you a ride back to your home planet, to make things even..."

Dib's smile stretched into a small grin, and instead of letting Zim's hand go when he'd gotten to his feet, he gripped it even more firmly. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd really appreciate that... Friend."

Zim took his hand back and waved away Dib's term of enderment, although the side of his mouth was quirked just slightly upwards. "Yeah, yeah, whatever - But first I'm going to collect my lottery prize. And I kinda feel like crashing Yoogli's party, too. We have plenty of time, after all."

Dib's grin was now pretty big, and he balled up his fists in excitement. "I definitely wanna go to a space party before I go back to Earth!" He answered enthusiastically. After all, when he got back home, there was a chance he'd have to stay there for the rest of his life. He was at -least- gonna go to a space party first, damn it.

"Well then let's go already!" Zim called over his shoulder as he began to head back towards the ship.

"Hey wait," Dib called him back, glancing at the newly-dead creature behind them. "This thing is basically a giant chicken, right...?"

Waste not, want not. They were getting low on protein supplements, anyways. Zim was repulsed by soiled Earth-meat, but without the added chemicals that humans poisoned themselves with, he and other Irkens could occasionally stand to eat another creature's flesh. In fact, Irkens generally believed that consuming another creature was just another way of conquering it, and that in some cases, one could absorb the strength of your foe by eating it.

They didn't take the whole thing though, it was too big. But they butchered a few choice cuts of the breast meat, freezing and storing most of it for later. Then they cooked up a slab for that night's supper.

"Mmm," Dib chewed loudly, his appetite ravenous after running from the beast on the hot, heavy planet all day. It was a lot more fun to eat something you had a personal vendetta against. "Tastes like chicken! Hah!"

Zim rolled his eyes at the terrible joke. "Shut up and pass me the barbeque sauce."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

(( A.N. - I just realized I totally forgot about the episode "Dib Ship"... I have both seasons of IZ on DVD, but they're in storage right now, and I only ever saw that episode once and I completely forgot it existed until the other day... I'll try to fix up any errors relating to that later. My eyeballs need some down-time first, though. Also the "lottery" idea in the future chapter was inspired by someone I RPed with once, so if it's ever been used somewhere else before, sorry about that. PLEASE REVIEW~! ))


	7. The Healer

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Planet Tegma, the Irken-owned and mostly Irken-operated merchant corner of the multiverse, was a place where you could find at least half of what was known of exist, and for the right price, take it with you. This was the planet where the lottery's headquarters were located.

After Zim had announced the planet they were heading to, Orby had spoken up first, "Tegma? There is information about this planet in my database. There may be an Irken Hybrid named Dram still stationed there in quadrant Goog-61. He is a medic that specializes in working with other Hybrids. He has also been known to have a special skill set - He's the only Hybrid doctor I know of that also has experience with traumatized lekku."

Dib reached up and felt under his hair, "So, he might be able to make it work the way it's supposed to again...?" He asked hopefully.

Orby whirred for a few seconds and turned from purple to blue, then replied in it's metallic tone, "Orby deduces that the chances of what Dib hopes to happen happening is just under zero point two percent, because the original single lekku, even if left uncut, likely did not function the way the usual two do. The chances of Dram being able to introduce a synthetic stabilizer to restore a small portion of the lekku's original functions is fifty-nine percent likely. The chances of making no improvement at all is thirty-eight percent, and the chances of Dib dying in various ways is just under three percent."

Specific as always. "Well, I've had worse odds than that." Dib admitted with a shrug, and then on a whim, he asked his robo-ghost-mommy, "By the way, just curious... Did my father know what my lekku was supposed to be for, before he cut it? Did he even ask?"

"...Yes. He cut it specifically because of what he was told about it. He was afraid of you becoming more powerful than him someday."

Dib groaned under his breath. "Asshole..."

Zim hid his sympathy at first. Dib had to be pretty low before Zim would offer him comfort - It was much more fun to mess with him. "Just how are you going to pay for the procedure, Dib? Even IF we can find this Doctor-Dram, somehow I doubt he'll work for free."

Damn it, that was actually a good point. Yoogli had been quiet for the last few days, glaring at Zim behind his back, but he finally spoke up now. "I don't have much monies, but you're more than welcome to them, Dib."

Though he was touched by Yoogli's offer, Dib was about to turn him down as graciously as he could. But Zim spoke up first, in a jealous growl, "-I- will pay for Dib's procedure!"

Dib quirked a curious eyebrow at him questioningly, propelling Zim to go on in a slightly embarrassed sputter, "I mean- I HAVE certainly cost you quite a few hospital bills in your life, and I AM going to be winning a fabulous lottery prize soon, so... I don't know, consider it a late Birthday present. Or an early Deathday present." He smirked.

Dib was surprised, to say the least. Zim was actually being nice? Winning the lottery must have put him in a good mood. "Thanks, Zim..." He answered sincerely, reaching over and putting a hand on Zim's shoulder for a brief moment. "I'll find a way to pay you back sometime." He promised, to both his friend and himself.

Zim seemed to be conflicted about the touch for the first few seconds, then he finally slapped it away, though he seemed to be reluctant to do so. "Yes, yes, Zim is unfathomably gracious!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Later that night, about three hours into Dib's usual 4-6 hours of sleep, Zim crept into his quarters and shook him awake. "Dib-worm! We must speak NOW!" He commanded in fierce whispers.

Dib groaned softly, reluctant to wake up. He was having kind of weird but kind of nice dream that he was embracing Zim, the way Yoogli had once wanted to be embraced. Still in this dream-stupor, he grabbed onto real-Zim, thinking it was dream-Zim, and pulled him into his mattress, snuggling the alien like a teddy bear.

Zim at first went very rigid, and his cheeks went hot. The rest of his body quickly rose in temperature as well. Human skin was barely over one degree warmer than Irken skin was normally, but to Zim it felt like his body's temperature had risen at least ten degrees. And yet somehow, to the alien's complete bafflement, it actually felt really nice. Kind of incredible, actually. Zim couldn't help but let himself enjoy it for JUST a minute...

Until Dib mindlessly began nuzzling his cheek against one of Zim's antennae, and Zim suddenly gasped sharply, and thrashed violently against Dib's arms, "LET ME GO RIGHT NOW SMELLY-!"

Dib snorted awake and quickly let the alien go before he scratched his face off, tumbling off the side of his bed trying to get away form him. "Zim?! What the HELL-?" He blushed too, dearly hoping he hadn't said anything aloud while he was dreaming.

Zim had fallen off the other side of the bed, but he used his spider legs to jump over it, landing on Dib's chest and knocking the air out of him for a moment. "Shut up, Dib!" He commanded. "We have to speak now, while GIR is in sleep mode! I've been unable to trust my own robot slave for days because your SISTER revealed to me through GIR the other day, when you were playing Chicken on that yellow planet, that she's been in control of GIR almost as long as I've had him! Did you ever know anything about that, Dib?!"

After taking a few more gasps, Dib shook his head. "No! I didn't know anything about that. Well, except..." Zim gave him a hard stare, silently demanding the truth, so Dib gave it to him. "I really DID have no idea that she's been in control of GIR so long, but I heard her voice coming from it when we were passing through the black hole... She pretty much saved our butts, I think..." He admitted, still haunted by how his sister had spoken to the darkness, with only respect and reverence in her voice, but never a hint of fear...

"You think." Zim repeated doubtfully. "I'll be honest, I'm not sure what to think of you and your scary sibling anymore..."

"Yeah, well, you're not the only one." Dib deadpanned back at him. Then he blinked. "Hey wait - If we're back in our dimension, maybe I can call her. Here, get off of me-"

Zim blushed and got up without a word, then Dib joined him in sitting on the edge of his bed, where he pulled out his old smartphone, which had been made quite a bit smarter by Dib with a few tweaks and some 'borrowed' Irken technology. Good thing it ran on it's own without need of a service provider - Dib didn't even want to imagine how much they'd charge for a call that was THIS 'long-distance'.

It rang several times before Gaz's pre-recorded voice emerged. "Nice try, Dib. I know it's you, you're the only one who would call this old number. Just get the device back to me and I'll tell you everything you need to know. Until then, quit bugging me and focus on staying alive by yourself. I have enough problems to deal with right now, I can't afford to do you any more favors."

Dib turned the phone off without leaving a message. Apparently they'd have plenty to talk about, when and if they saw each other again. "Well, that's that." He stated simply.

"No, there's one more thing." Zim corrected him with a light growl. "We'll be arriving at Tegma in five more days, and I've located this Dram that Orby spoke of through the Tegma Directory, but when we get there, we're going to have to disguise you to look more like a proper Irken Hybrid. People are going to notice us no matter what, but we need to try to attract as little trouble as possible. There's a few things that we'll be able to fix easily, other things, not so much..."

Dib immediately glanced down at his fingers first. Zim saw this, and commented on it. "It WOULD be easier to amputate a finger or two to make it look more Irken. BUT," He grinned devilishly as Dib looked over to him with a gulp. "It isn't unheard of for Irkens to have finger mutations, even more so for Hybrids. The vast majority of us have three-fingered hands, but a small few of us have four-fingered hands - I've even heard of a very few rare types of Hybrids having five, six and seven-fingered hands."

Zim went on, studying Dib. "Of course we'll have to make your skin green too - Your single lekku would be useless as a disguise, so we'll just have to tape it down to hide it completely and graft two fake lekku on top of your head, which you'll need to shave again... Most of the disguise should be simple enough, really, there's just one thing... Your eyes."

Dib raised a brow. "My eyes? What about them? Can't we just make some contacts?"

"DUH, Dib. That's not the problem. This is!" The irritable Irken reached over and grabbed at Dib's glasses. He knew already that a few years prior, Dib had gotten the tops of his ears pierced and had gotten special earrings that allowed him to fasten his glasses to his ears, so that they stayed in place when he got active. Zim removed the earrings first and then the glasses, and not wanting to rip his ears, Dib let him.

"This archaic nonsense." Zim repeated. "No Irken would be caught wearing something so ridiculous, and I must admit, I really don't understand why even a monkey like you would, either. You've already broken two of your spare pairs since our trip began, do you even have that many spares left? It doesn't matter." He answered his own inquiry before Dib could. "Because you're not going to wear them anymore. But I'm curious - Primitive though your planet is, it still had laser surgery available to correct vision. Why didn't you just utilize it instead of putting up with these stupid things?"

Dib sighed, grabbing back his glasses. "You know, I might kinda just like the way they look on me! And would YOU trust just any stranger to shoot lasers into your eyes?" The second point was the stronger one, as Dib realized he had only ever liked how glasses looked because his father also was always wearing some kind of sunglasses or goggles. So, since he now officially loathed him more than ever, he started to think maybe it was time to stop instinctively emulating him.

Zim simply shrugged. "Well, you're going to have to trust me to do it, because you're not stepping foot out onto Tegma or anywhere else Irkens congregate without a convincing disguise. Now hold still and this will only take half a minute!"

Zim suddenly pushed Dib onto his back on the bed, climbing on top of his chest and taking out what looked like a silver retractable pen, with six little oval buttons along the side. It didn't take a rocket scientist to put together what it was and what Zim was planning to do with it. Instinctively, Dib covered his eyes with his hands to protect them, and almost squeaked out, "W-Wait! Zim, you can't just expect me to be okay with this! These are my EYES we're talking about!"

Zim sighed irritably. "I have eyes too Dib, I am aware of how important they are. Which is why I figured you would WANT your incredibly inferior eyes improved upon. Besides..." Zim seemed to struggle within himself for a moment. "If... If you're going to be my comrade, I need you to be as useful as possible! If I have to rely on your inferior human eyes, they won't be -defective- inferior human eyes to boot! Contacts might work better than glasses, but they can still fall out too and you'll be useless to me if they do, so you're just going to have to let me fix your problem and stop being a big worm-baby about it!"

Dib gulped and slowly peeked through his fingers, then finally, with a sigh, he removed his hands completely. "Okay Zim... I'm putting my trust in you..." He breathed out quietly, laying his hands down on either sides of Zim's legs.

They were both very aware of how vulnerable Dib was at that moment. The human was trying his hardest to stay still due to the fear of moving too much during the delicate procedure, while the alien restrained himself from shaking with excitement. He couldn't deny how pleased it made him, to have Dib submit to him like this. But he forced himself take a calming breath before steadying himself for the task.

He moved his legs outside of Dib's arms, pinning them close to his sides to keep him still. Then he leaned over, used two of the fingers on one hand to pull one of his eyes wide open and keep it that way. "Stay as still as possible and I can probably have this over in only twenty seconds..." He whispered, and began before Dib could reply.

The laser was at a very low level, so it didn't sting or burn, it just felt like an uncomfortable pressure was encircling his eyeball. Zim focused, making no unnecessary movements until it was time to switch eyes. After he did, Dib's vision momentarily faded to shades of grey. When the pressure went away, Dib felt Zim get off of him.

"Zim?" He couldn't help but inquire, a little paranoid.

"I'm just getting something, Dib-worm." Zim replied shortly, and soon enough he was back, applying some kind of balm to Dib's eyes and then placing some gauze over them. "There, sleep another few hours with these on and when you wake up your eyes will be better than ever."

Dib swallowed and nodded, feeling Zim get off of him with a little regret. The lasers in the eyes wasn't great, but the feeling of Zim's lighter weight on top of him, his cool skin warming against Dib's - The hormonal human couldn't deny to at least himself, that part was decidedly not unpleasant. "Well, I'll probably hold my thanks until then, just to make sure I don't end up blind forever." He half-joked.

"Fine, and then you may bow down and kiss my boot in thanks."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you."

"Why wouldn't I?" Zim asked innocently, and Dib waited until he heard him leave with the wooshing door before snickering immaturely to himself.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

As Zim had promised, Dib woke up the next morning with perfect 20-20 vision. He stared around himself in awe when the gauze had been removed, looking at all the familiar things, now no longer blurry outside the rim of his spectacles, and no longer weighted down by the constant presence of metal frames on his face.

"I gotta admit, this is pretty awesome..." He smiled over at Zim, and told him, full of sincerety. "Thanks, Zim."

"I know, I'm amazing." The alien replied dismissively, then glanced up at the human. "By the way... I think you look... Less stupid now, without them."

Well, Zim was never great at compliments, but Dib took it with a smile.

When they were close to arriving at planet Tegma, Dib noticed there seemed to be two sides to the planet, one with lots of brown and white spots on it's land-masses, the other with mostly gray. Zim had explained to him that one side contained mostly independent merchants who basically lived in the same shabby spot where they did whatever their deal was, while the other was inhabited by more official businesses and actual corporations, and had big buildings that could store many different items and people.

After parking the ship, Zim helped Dib apply his disguise, covering his skin with a water-resistant green paint and attaching the fake lekku to his newly-shaved head. They had also covered his ears by taping them down, but they had to admit defeat to Dib's pig-nose, which couldn't be taped down enough to be convincing.

Finally it was time to make him a pair of Irken contacts, and Zim instructed him to pick which color he wanted. Dib, without thinking about it, picked the one closest to his real eye color - Golden-brown. But Zim growled in irritation at his choice. "We're supposed to be trying to avoid any extra attention, Dib. It's going to be hard enough to hide you with your height."

Dib rolled his eyes. "Well fine then, why don't you pick the eye color out for me?"

Zim hummed in thought, flipping through the selections. He then began switching back between the various shades of blue, before picking one of the deeper, darker hues. "These are best, I think... Actually, yeah." Zim quirked both an eye and one of his lekku as Dib applied them. "You look a LOT better as an Irken..."

Dib snorted, his cheeks pink underneath the green paint. "Well it's certainly a step above your Earth costume."

Zim poked his chest and pointed out, "Hey, that's because most humans were so stupid I didn't have to be that creative."

Yoogli was practically bouncing on his heels when Zim finally opened the hatch to let them out. He didn't have any business to do, he was just eager to simply go out and walk among his fellows. He was the first to jump off of the ship, immediately rushing into the crowd, surfing through the mass of bodies.

Dib had a little bit of trouble focusing on following Zim when they were surrounded by aliens that looked more or less just like him. He got sidetracked two or three times by the sights of all the people and the merchants and their wares, and he almost got lost. But thankfully, Zim came back for him and found him, and this time he led the taller Hybrid by the hand to make sure he didn't stray.

They did get a few stares, but they managed to get to their destination without being stopped by anyone. The tent that Zim stopped at didn't look any different from the others, but it's merchant was a little different from the average Irken. His legs were strangely skinny, in a way that made Dib wonder if he could even walk on them - He was currently sitting in front of his stall, soaking up the sun. He also seemed much older than any other Irken Dib had ever seen, with withered skin and tired blue eyes that were just a shade lighter than Dib's. He was somewhat tall, almost as tall as Gazlene had been, but his back bent over with age.

"Are you Dram?" Zim asked, "The Vortian-Irken Hybrid medic?"

"Depends on who is asking." The old Irken replied with a cough. "Except it doesn't, because I don't take in new clients anymore..."

"What about a favor to an old one?" Dib spoke up, not about to give up so easily. "Do you remember an Irken who was named Gazlene?"

The doctor had been looking away from them stubbornly, but the second that name was spoken, his eyes went wide and he stared right at the hybrid who had uttered it. "What did you say?" He gasped instinctively, but then thought better of it. "No, don't say her name again... But how do you know of her?"

Dib could see the elderly alien putting the pieces together in his eyes, but he answered anyways, "It might be hard to believe, but I'm her offspring." The Irken word for it made no distinction between sexes. Offspring were offspring.

"And she is...?"

Dib looked away. "...Dead." He answered shortly.

The older Irken took a deep breath. "I can't say I'm surprised. She was always a risk-taker. I knew one day it wouldn't work out in her favor... Anyways, what do you need from me?"

Dib looked around at the shoppers passing by the various stalls. No one seemed to be paying attention to them, but he didn't feel like taking the chance that one of them was. "Can we go inside and show you there?" He asked hesitantly, still not sure how those freaky-skinny legs were supposed to work.

Dram sighed a little, then hefted himself up from his chair. He balanced himself on his strange legs like a ballerina, and motioned for them to follow as he went into his tent. Inside there were only a few essential items - A cot for Dram, one for his patients, a small collection of various surgical tools laid out on a rotating circular table by the patient's cot, and a nearby metal chest that was probably a freezer.

"So what seems to be the problem?" Dram asked again, a little sarcastically.

Dib glanced briefly as Zim, who nodded. Then he reached up, grabbing his fake lekku by the bottom and pulling them off. Dram looked a little sickened by that, but even more so when Dib removed the tape covering his real lekku. He then got down to his knees and held the limp lekku up so the doctor could inspect it.

Dram shook his head in disbelief at the sight. "What kind of savage would do that to a smeet..."

"My paternal unit." Dib answered with a small scowl. "I can't really feel it except underneath at the very bottom. When it's touched there, a spark of electricity goes off and shocks my body. Very painful..." The human-hybrid coughed, "Anyways, can you do anything about it?"

"Possibly. Probably." The doctor answered shortly. "But I make no promises. Normally I charge one hundred monies for a job like this, but with the added unknown elements to deal with, I'm going to have to insist on two hundred."

Zim growled, reluctant at first to fork over a full half of what he had. He eventually did, but he told Dram, very short-and-sweet, "If he dies, I get my monies back."

Dib gave him a hard stare, but then he couldn't help but snort out a short laugh, and replied dryly, "Wow. Thanks, Zim..."

Dram wasn't nearly as amused. He answered grimly, "There is a very slight chance of death involved. But I am confident in my skill, and long years of experience. You are not the first unknown hybrid to have come to me in a similar condition, in fact, hybrids are the most likely of all Irkens to have their lekku tampered with. I've seen and fixed worse than this, but that all depends on what this thing was capable of to begin with..."

"What do you mean?" Dib inquired, "Have you seen single lekku before?"

Dram slowly nodded. "It's very rare even in hybrids but I've seen two other cases in all my life, and heard of a handful more. In most cases it is weaker than two, but in a couple of the cases I've heard about, the Irkens who relayed it to me claimed that the single lekku gave the hybrid strange powers. But we won't know until we've begun. Are you ready? I'll need to render you unconscious for the procedure."

Dib swallowed, suddenly a little nervous. However slight, there was the chance that he might not wake up from this. He looked over at Zim and asked him hesitantly, "Will you... Stick around until I wake up again?"

Zim gave him a funny look. "Where else do you think I'm going to go?"

The human slowly smiled, and while he was giving his friend that soulful glance, Dram had injected him in the neck so skillfully that he didn't even feel it. "Okay then, so Dram, how are you gonna put me under-Rrrruh..." Dib's sentence tapered off and his legs turned to noodles as he went unconcious. The two aliens caught him as he fell, and with some slight difficulty they hefted him onto the patient's cot.

Dram then pulled a case out from the freezer and opened it. Inside there were several small, dark grey-colored chips in different shapes and sides. He pulled out one that looked lika a small disc cut in half, and held it up to inspect.

"I've developed several kinds of stabilizers for all the different kinds of lekku injuries I've seen. They are basically replicas of the missing tissue made with real Irken cells. Freezing keeps them dormant until the procedure." Dram went on to explain to Zim, or to no one at all. He didn't seem to care which. "I believe this one should suffice. However the biggest problem lies in that this is such an old wound. I'm afraid I'll have to cut it again to fit the stabilizing chip in, and the chip needs to come in direct contact with his DNA to merge with it anyways. Once in, hopefully the nerves will connect themselves to the chip and the chip will guide sensation between the lekku and the rest of the body properly."

"Well then DO it already." Zim huffed back, looking unimpressed. "Just remember, if he dies, I get my monies back. Also," He decided to add now that the human was unconscious, "I'd probably kill you, too."

Dram snorted, just as unimpressed with Zim's threat. "I already told you, I'm confident in my skills, or else I wouldn't have even taken the job, favor to an old 'friend' or not."

Zim paused, and then inquired as casually as he could. "So, what was Dib's maternal unit like?" With Orby waiting back at the ship, he likely wouldn't get another chance to ask.

"Scary." Dram answered right away, and after a short thought, he went on, "She never cared that she was supposed to be considered inferior, and she didn't treat others that way just because they were short or anything else. Like all brown-eyed Irkens she was given a derogatory name: Gazlene is basically just a fancy word for the gases in a fart. But you don't even wanna know what she did to the first and only Irken ever unfortunate enough to try and make fun of her for it..." Dram chuckled a little to himself, though. That young, cocky bastard Red had really deserved the unexpected beating the slightly shorter female gave him that day, and it seemed he had only turned out for the better afterwards...

It was about what Zim had expected of the Gaz-beast's life-giver, and he left it at that, watching patiently as Dram got himself and Dib ready for the procedure. When the time came for Dram to make the incision, Zim quickly averted his eyes. Normally it was a treat to see Dib in pain, but it wasn't quite as thrilling anymore as it used to be...

A few moments later, Dram announced, "We're done here."

Zim turned back and gave him a glare, "That didn't take very long..." He mentioned, suspecting that it had been a rush-job.

Dram gave him the same look of annoyance and growled a little at him, answering briefly, "Once he wakes up, leave."

They stared at each other in a shared sense of dislike for almost an hour. Zim was almost about to go over and shake the human awake himself when Dib began to stir, and groan. The alien approached him and bent over his form, looking down at him inquisitively. "How do you feel, Dib?"

Dib blinked up at him, groggily rubbing at his eyes. "Kinda dizzy... Head hurts..."

Dram answered without even looking at Zim, reclining on his cot and facing away from them. "Side effects. Should go away soon. Leave now."

Zim sighed irritably and focused his attention back on Dib, "Can you walk?"

Dib nodded without actually considering whether he could, and with some difficulty he hefted himself up to a sitting position. He rubbed his eyes some more, took a breath, and then placed his feet down on the ground and stood up.

At first he seemed to be alright - Until he actually took a step. Then he wobbled a bit, and Zim rushed to put a steady arm around his back. Dib was much bigger than him so it was a rather comical sight to see, but the smaller alien was stronger than his stature would suggest, and he managed to keep them both on their feet.

Zim led the two of them through the dusty streets, getting a few more odd looks than before. About halfway back to the ship, the dizziness began to ebb away and Dib managed to walk on his own again, but Zim still walked at his side, just in case.

Once Dib's big head seemed to be working more clearly, the Irken asked his Hybrid companion, "Do you feel anything yet?"

Dib hummed a bit in consideration. "It... Kind of feels like it's buzzing, right now..."

Zim took a breath, trying to be optimistic since he'd paid for it. "Well, that's probably better than no feeling at all. It may be your remaining nerves reconnecting to the stabilizing chip. Anything else?"

Actually, there was something else, but Dib hesitated to mention it. When Zim had pulled away, it felt as if some kind of static remained between them, reluctant to let go of Zim. It was somewhat like trying to pull two magnets away from each other. But obviously Zim hadn't felt it too, so he didn't bring it up. "No, but I'll let you know if there is."

Once they'd nearly reached the parking lot where they'd left the ship, they found Yoogli nearby talking with a small group of very short Irkens - Young ones, actually. They were barely more than smeets, just out of the academy, probably here to stock up on items they needed and trying to find them cheaper in the bazaar than they knew they'd be elsewhere.

Yoogli was restraining the urge to coo over them when he noticed Dib and Zim coming back. "Promise to be careful out there, okay my young comrades?" He asked, wiping a smudge off the shirt of the shortest one like a mother hen.

The smeets all rolled their eyes and promised him they would in dull, bored tones, and Yoogli returned to his shipmate's side as they began boarding the craft. "Did everything go okay, Dib?" The shorter alien asked, keeping a good foot of space between them after seeing Zim's glare.

"I think so. I guess time will tell." Dib replied with a yawn, "I'm still pretty tired from the anesthesia though. I think I'm gonna rest a bit longer in my room..."

"When are YOU gonna get your own ship again anyways, Yoogli?" Zim growled irritably as he started up the engines.

Yoogli gave him an annoyed stare in return. "I DID ask around about it while you were gone, actually. They said I'd have to check with the officials on the other side of Tegma about a replacement Voot, so, can you at least give me a ride over there?"

"You COULD just walk-" Zim began, but Dib pinched his arm to distract him, and it worked like a charm. "OW! DIB, I -WILL- DESTROY YOU!"

The human chuckled nasally, then yawned again as he headed towards his quarters. "Yeah, yeah - Just do me a favor and kill me in my sleep, okay?"

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	8. The Savior

(( A.N. This chapter contains some pretty heavy stuff, some not-so-vague references to sexual assault and similar themes. Hope everybody still likes this chapter though, I worked hard on it. Please review~ ^^ ))

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Dib woke up a few hours later, and the first thing he did was reach up and feel at the top of his head for his lekku, to see if anything had changed. He ran his finger along the top-side of the skinny appendage, and a slight shiver ran down his lekku and through his neck and spine. Experimentally, he did it again, and the shiver turned into more of a warm pulse. It was strongest in his back, where it felt like the pulse was branching out with his nerves and massaging the muscles in his back underneath the skin.

It actually felt pretty darn good, so Dib was about to try it again until two short knocks at the door interrupted him, and he put his hands down quickly, as if he had been caught doing something naughty. Which, in a way, he kind of had. "Er - Come in, Zim."

Zim emerged through the unlocked door, arms crossed and looking slightly puzzled. "How did you know it was me?"

Good question. How did he know it was Zim? It could have been Yoogli, but for some reason... He just knew it was Zim. Not thinking too much on it yet, Dib simply shrugged. "Lucky guess?"

Zim didn't seem convinced but he shrugged it off as well. "We'll be landing in another thirty minutes at the Lottery Headquarters. However, I will be going there alone, and you and Yoogli will be staying behind to watch GIR and the ship. When I get back, we'll be taking Yoogli to the Irken Transportation office, and then we'll be on our way."

Dib couldn't hide his disappointment, and underneath that, for no reason he could currently fathom, he was also really worried about the prospect. "Are you sure it'll be safe for you to go out there by yourself?"

Zim gave him a really 'WTF' kind of look then. "What-Dib, I'm really not sure whether to smack you or check you for a preexisting head injury, because you're not making any sense right now. Why wouldn't I be safe walking among my own people? Irkens are not savages like humans are, we do not attack our own kind merely for monetary gain, so I'm not going to get 'mugged', if that's what you're thinking."

"I know that," Dib hurried to assure him with a slight blush. "But you ARE pretty accident-prone sometimes, so maybe it'd be best if-"

"I'm going, ALONE." Zim growled back at him slowly. "You're just being paranoid as always Dib-worm - At least, I'm giving you the benefit of a doubt that you're just being paranoid, because if I thought for a second that you were insinuating that I am too WEAK to take care of myself, I'd scratch your ugly face off right now."

"I wasn't insinuating that, Zim." Dib quickly soothed him quickly before his temper flared up. "Just - Nevermind. Forget I said anything. Don't worry about the ship. It'll still be here when you get back."

"It better." Zim replied in a huff, then closed the door behind him.

Dib waited until he felt the ship touch down, and heard the front hatch woosh open. When it closed again, he exited his room, readjusting his fake antennae. He'd taken them off before going to sleep, but the rest of his disguise was still on. He did make one change though - He took out the blue contacts Zim had chosen for him earlier, and replaced them with a purple pair, just in case Zim should look back and catch a glimpse of him.

Then he turned to Yoogli, who was watching him the entire time. "I'm going to follow Zim. Are you okay with watching the ship and GIR by yourself, Yoogli? He shouldn't be too difficult to control as long as you keep his favorite shows on."

"Sure thing, Dib. You can count on me." Yoogli smiled back at him and saluted.

Orby, who was floating next to Yoogli, stopped Dib just before he bolted out of the ship, "Dib - I cannot accompany you. Irken officials will confiscate unknown technology if they see it. But take this with you instead." Out of one of the rectangular compartments, a metal claw came out holding what looked like an Irken remote control. Buttons with the numbers zero through nine and the letters of the Irken alphabet were displayed on the front, as well as several oval buttons in various colors below them.

"This device is a door decoder." Orby explained. "If you come across a door you need to open that requires a password, press the blue button. The combination will light up in order on the buttons of the device. If voice recognition software is needed instead of a simple password, press the green button and the device will play back the last voice that was used to open the door. Either way, when you're done opening the door, press the red button to reset the door and delete any trace of your tampering."

Dib took the device with a grateful nod, slipped it into his pocket, and rushed out of the ship to catch up with Zim.

The occupants on this half of Tegma were much more controlled than the dusty, crowded streets on it's other side - Irkens filed down the sidewalks in an orderly line, while the middle of the street consisted of several conveyor belts, each belt taking it's occupants to a different building. It took him a few minutes, but Dib finally found the one that Zim was on, and he quickly got on several spaces behind him.

The conveyor belt led them past several nearly-identical buildings, drab and gray, until they reached one that was slightly taller than the rest, painted magenta, with a banner hanging from the top of it that had a picture of an excited-looking Irken holding wads of cash in both hands, and Irken letters underneath that read, 'Lottery Headquarters'.

Dib watched patiently as Zim headed into the building first, then slowly followed in after him. He saw Zim get onto an elevator, and when the doors had closed, Dib waited outside of the elevator until Zim had arrived on his level, stopping at the fourth floor. Dib then waited for the elevator to come back down, boarded it himself, and rode it up to the fourth level. When he got out, he just barely caught a glimpse of Zim as he punched in a number code at a door at the end of the hall, and headed into the room beyond.

He used the device as Orby had instructed him to, punched in the code, and then he quickly slipped into the room and ducked behind a statue of some Tallest or another that was located right next to the door. He peeked from behind the statue and watched as Zim walked down the rather long room to a panel of Irkens at the other end of it. Most of them were taller than Zim, and they were wearing rather silly hats that were twice as long as their heads and had a big Irken cash symbol on it, and jackets with collars that rose over their mouths.

Zim stood before them haughtily with his hands on his hips. "I have come to collect the fabulous prize I won! GIVE TO ZIIIM~" He couldn't help but demand greedily.

The Irken directly in the middle of the panel had blood red eyes and was the tallest out of those present. "Yes, in good time. First we'll need you to answer a few identification questions, and once you've answered them all, we'll be happy to hand over your prize. First of all, please state your official name, rank and serial number for the record."

"Invader Zim, serial number 8-8-9-9-7-7-7!" Zim stated with a brief salute.

"Age?" The bloody-eyed Irken went on in a bored tone.

"I just completed my nineteenth cycle as of month three, day thirty!" Zim grinned proudly.

"Congratulations." Red-eyes replied with no sincerity in his voice. "Now then, there's just one more thing we need from you and then the prize is all yours... Please present proof of your biological sex."

Zim was grinning and making 'gimme-gimme' fingers until he heard the final request. Then his smile fell instantly, his vibrant green skin went incredibly pale, and his eyes widened as far as they could go. He was silent for almost a full minute, until the red-eyed Irken finally spoke up again in a falsely sweetened voice, "Is there a problem?"

Zim gulped audibly, taking a step back, "N-No, not at all - It's just, I JUST remembered, I-I actually really don't need a fabulous prize after all!"

The blood-eyed Irken's mouth stretched into a sadistic grin. "Come now, surely you jest."

"No, no!" Zim insisted, clearly more than just a little nervous. "I'm such an amazing invader, I'm sure I'll conquer something worth much more soon enough! Go ahead and just donate it or something-"

Almost snickering with mirth, the red-eyed Irken snapped his fingers and the Irken at the furthest end of the panel, whom Zim suddenly realized had a psionic device implanted above her terrifyingly familiar purple eyes, suddenly lunged out of her seat with her spider legs, landing on top of Zim. She quickly pinned him to the ground and then maliciously scratched across his right cheek with her claws. Zim cried out as his pinkish-red blood began to run from the wound, and he thrashed as violently as he could underneath her, trying desperately to get away.

"Tak, PLEASE don't do this!" Zim was outright begging her. "I thought you didn't want revenge on me!" He added, trying to appeal to her sense of decency.

But that was just about the worst thing Zim could have said. Tak snarled right in his face, "I -didn't- care about revenge... The FIRST time you screwed up my chance fulfill my life's potential! But after the SECOND? No, we have a score to settle now, Zim!" She let out a ragged little laugh, "But actually, to tell you the truth, nobody else wanted to touch you with a ten-foot-pole, so I'm getting a pretty huge promotion for this job too! Humiliating you is just a bonus!"

Several other Irkens from the panel jumped up on their spider legs and surrounded Zim and Tak. Blood-eyes commanded her, "Hold him down!" And Tak obeyed, pinning his arms down and sitting on his chest while another orange-eyed Irken approached and, to Dib's growing shock and horror, pulled Zim's pants completely off of him, exposing his genitals - A wormy penis that strongly resembled the alien's tongue, only thicker.

Dib was frozen at first - He knew he needed to help Zim, but they were severely outnumbered, and he really didn't want to take the chance that while he took them on, one of them might take advantage of Zim's vulnerable position and seriously hurt him. But the guilt rose in him like bile as blood-eyes commanded the orange-eyed one, "Lift it and look underneath."

The orange-eyed Irken obeyed without question, and Dib's eyes went wide as he saw what was underneath - Though there was no denying what it was, Dib was still unable to believe it at first. But then a magenta-eyed Irken took out some kind of device from his robe, and turned it on. It beamed a holographic identification card in the air with an image of Zim on it, and next to his picture there were four symbols - A red horizontal line, a blue vertical line, a purple triangle, and a plus sign with the red horizontal line and the blue vertical line overlapping each other.

The red horizontal line had been encircled, but after the magenta-eyed Irken had fiddled around with it, the circle around the red line disappeared and reappeared around the red and blue plus symbol. A robotic voice then announced the obvious, "Biological sex status of Zim is now confirmed. Double-sex."

"NO!" Zim suddenly screamed, sounding more ashamed and more terrified than Dib had ever heard him.

Tak scoffed at him, but even she was a little unnerved by just how distressed Zim was, "Calm down, will you? They're not going to kill you for it, Zim, it's just for identification purposes! If you hadn't lied about your sex to begin with, this wouldn't have had to happen!"

"You LIE! They're going to kill me-!" Zim cried, beginning to thrash again. "Let me GO!"

Blood-eyes was outright grinning, "No really, Zim - We're not going to kill you for being a double-sexed FREAK. We're going to kill you for entering Irken-controlled territory when you're supposed to be banished!"

Zim's mouth fell wide open, "You-You can't do that! You TOLD me to come here!"

"No I didn't." The red-eyed leader replied calmly. "No one strictly ORDERED you to come here, Zim. You came of your own free will, and you WILL be held accountable for that." He sneered down at the terrified little alien, "And don't think Tallest Red is going to swoop in and save you this time either, Zim. These orders came straight from the only person he can't overrule - Tallest Purple himself."

"Now..." The leader shot one last distasteful look at Zim before turning his back on him, and snapping his fingers at the other Irkens. "Take out this trash."

There was no more time to wait for a better, more opportune moment. Dib knew that he had to act. Whatever crazy, stupid thing he was going to do, he had to do it now.

He sprinted from behind his hiding place and ran after Zim, and the other Irkens were so shocked by the newcomer they didn't know what to expect from him at first. They certainly wouldn't have thought in a million years that he was there to actually -save- Zim.

Tak started to demand of the unknown Irken, not recognizing Dib with the disguise on at first, "What do you think you're-?!"

He didn't let her get any further than that. He pulled back his five-fingered hand and slapped her -hard- with the back of his hand, knocking her off of Zim and sending her flying several feet across the room. Then he reached down, scooping Zim up into his arms and holding him tight against his chest, and Zim was too traumatized and too grateful for the unexpected rescue to protest.

At first, he really wasn't sure what else he was going to do after that. The other Irkens were staring at him with their eyes bugged out, completely baffled by who the savior of the most hated Irken in existence could be. But it only took them a moment to get over it, then several Irkens charged at once with their spider legs.

Dib stared at them as they advanced, no fear in his eyes, only hatred. He had never been so royally pissed off in his entire life. He was never amused by bullies who got their kicks off of causing others pain for no good reason, but knowing now what he did about what his own mother had been through, he was really in no mood to show them mercy after what they'd done to Zim.

White-hot fury burned in Dib's veins, and he clenched his teeth tight. His skin began to prickle and his head was pounding with a fast-growing migraine. He clenched Zim tighter to his chest, and just before the enemies reached them, a surge of electricity suddenly surrounded Dib and Zim, emitting from Dib's lekku, which was so rigid at this moment it had ripped the tape covering it completely off.

Dib and Zim were somehow left unharmed by the electricity, but every other Irken in the room was badly shocked, and all their equipment was fried. The spider-legs all wobbled and then crumpled, and the Irkens fell to the floor, just inches away from Dib.

More Irken soldiers began coming in through the front door, so escaping the way they came in wasn't an option. But Dib's electricity had not just short-circuited the equipment - It had also broken all the windows in the room. So, holding Zim tight, Dib ran for the nearest one, and jumped out. They fell the four levels to the ground, and Dib miraculously managed to land on his feet without breaking any bones. It still hurt like hell, but he ignored the pain and sprinted off, shoving Irkens out of his way.

A group of soldiers followed after them, but Dib's long legs managed to keep him just ahead of them. Only when they'd reached the ship and entered it did Dib finally put Zim down, quickly taking off his trench-coat and throwing it around Zim's shoulders. Still in shock, Zim wrapped it around himself, grateful for the modesty, and retreated to his room without looking at Yoogli.

Dib started the ship and took off with it as fast as he could manage. A few drones chased after them, but Dib expertly shot them down. His scary sister wasn't the only one who had better aim when she was pissed.

Once they passed the atmosphere, Dib just very briefly set the ship's controls to hyper-speed, getting a good distance away quickly before shutting it off again.

"What the hell happened...?" Yoogli finally dared to ask once things seemed to have settled down. But Dib only replied by shaking his head, indicating that now wasn't the time, and headed over to the door of Zim's room.

"Zim, are you okay?" He knocked very lightly, almost sure that Zim would react violently. Either that, or Zim would probably tell him to go away, avoid them for days, then emerge as if nothing had ever happened.

But instead, after a short pause, Zim actually opened the door for him, quickly pulled Dib into his room, and then closed the door behind them. Dib swallowed against his throat, staring down at Zim, who had gotten a new pair of pants on by then but was still clutching Dib's trench-coat around him. Zim was silently staring down at the floor, and Dib mimicked his silence - He really just didn't know what to say at first.

Finally Zim glared weakly up at him. "I know you saw it..."

"Zim, it doesn't matter-"

"Do -not- LIE to me, human!" Zim shoved him back a step. "I lived on your miserable planet for years, I know the customs! You culture considers anything related to females to be weak and inferior! Your own mother was-"

Dib cut him off there, "I KNOW my mother was RAPED, okay Zim?! And I know my planet is an uncivilized ball of dirt where females are treated like shit for no reason, but I am NOT like that! I don't care what's between your legs! You're still the same person I always knew! Or did you think I would try to rape you the second I found out about this? If that's the case, then you really don't know me at all, Zim!"

Zim was silent, looking appropriately guilty. Slowly he took a step back, then another, until he reached the edge of his bed, and sat down on it. He lowered his face into his hands, and began to softly shake. He muttered into his palms, "It was all for nothing... It's happening again... Nothing I did made any difference... It's going to happen again... I failed..."

Dib stared at his traumatized friend, still unsure what to make of everything that was happening, still putting the disconnected puzzle pieces together in his mind. "...This wasn't your fault, Zim." He mentioned, and Zim's head snapped up with a furious glare. But before the alien said anything, Dib sunk to his knees on the floor beside Zim's bed. This subconsciously pacified Zim, because although Dib didn't know it, lowering yourself below the height of another was a sign of submission, or of the utmost trust and respect.

Zim's anger subsided and Dib went on, "No one deserves to have that happen to them... No one."

"You wouldn't understand, Dib-" Zim began again stubbornly and with a thick throat.

But Dib nodded in agreement, "You're right, I don't... Please tell me."

Zim stared at him, unsure, for several seconds. He was far from eager to tell anyone the biggest, darkest secret of his life. But Dib was the only true friend he had in the world - If he didn't tell him, there was no one else who would care to listen to him...

Zim took a ragged breath and then suddenly, he flung his arms around Dib's shoulders and tucked his chin against Dib's neck. He felt a little less self-conscious doing it with Dib's Irken disguise on, though he was still well aware how taboo it was. He just didn't care anymore.

He squeezed the human tight, and proceeded to confess everything. "There are dark periods in my life that I wish I could forget, Dib. But I know now I won't be able to..." Dark magenta eyes slowly gathered pink tears, but the Irken quickly wiped them away before they fell. "I've always been hated just for being who I am, but the truth is, I'm not the only one. Historically, my kind..." He didn't explain what he meant by that and he didn't need to. "Has been hated, judged, and deemed unworthy of life, for the very life we were given..."

Dib wrapped his arms very loosely around Zim's midsection, giving him plenty of room to push him away if he wanted to. Zim only gripped him tighter, and went on, "Under the rule of Tallest Miyuki, terrible atrocities were committed against innocent Irkens. Some were executed. Others... We had no choice but to hide. And there were only two choices of -how- to hide... Some dismembered themselves and claimed to be female." Dib felt a strong shudder go through Zim's frame. "I refused that option, of course. So there was only one other thing I could do to protect my identity..."

Zim hesitated for a long moment, until Dib laid a reassuring hand on his lower back. "They had an x-ray scanner stationed at the entrance of the research facility I worked at... I had to pass through it every day, just like everyone else. If my... Spare parts," He ground the word out, making it quite clear what he thought about his own body. "Were detected, I would have been taken away and killed. I had to... There was, this device, this bar, and it would interfere with the scanner, to hide the female parts from detection if it was..."

Zim suddenly growled loudly and shoved Dib back, getting up to his feet and pacing away from the human. He wrapped his arms around himself, missing Dib's warm arms more than he cared to admit, but too stubborn and too full of shame to continue the contact while speaking the words he was about to utter. "It HURT. It hurt SO bad! I had to wear it everyday and walk around with it inside of me and it BURNED! It chafed my insides raw, left me bruised and bleeding, until I wasn't even sure anymore that DEATH itself could be worse! It was driving me INSANE!"

Dib watched with wide eyes and a heavy, sympathetic heart as the Irken turned and pounded his fists against a wall, then hid his face against it. "Red promised he would change the rules, and stop the killing, if I could help him become Tallest... I had no choice. It was my life, or theirs..."

"So that's why you did it..." Dib whispered to himself, putting the rest of pieces together for himself. After what Yoogli had let slip about the deaths of the previous Tallests, Dib had known it couldn't have been an accident. And it was no coincidence that Zim was still alive after 'accidentally' killing them, either. "...I don't blame you one bit. I would have done the same thing."

"How would you know?" Zim sighed irritably.

Dib sighed right back and commanded the Irken, "Turn around and look at me, Zim."

Slowly, Zim turned around to obey, finding Dib in the middle of removing his shirt. He blushed and demanded, "What are you-?"

Dib looked down, blushing too once the garment had come off. "Do you remember, Zim - Freaking out in gym class a couple years back, when one boy took off his shirt, and you asked him if he was lactating?" Dib couldn't help but snicker at the memory.

Zim gave him a pouty glare, "Why else would you have mammary tissue?"

Dib shook his head in amusement. "Just another way us humans differ from Irkens, I guess. All humans start out as females in the womb before hormones kick in and make us completely male or female."

"That is so weird." Zim couldn't help but smirk a little.

Dib chuckled, putting his shirt back on, "Yeah, I guess it kinda is. But hey, it's just who I am. There's nothing wrong with it, and there's nothing wrong with you for being just how you are, either."

Zim's smirk slowly stretched into a small but genuine smile. "...Th... Th-Thanks, Dib..." He forced himself to utter underneath his breath.

The human shook his head. "No problem. It's just what friends do."

"Supposedly." Zim shrugged, feeling more than a little awkward after his confession, but also undeniably relieved. "Of course, friend or not, I -will- destroy you if you tell anyone about any of this."

Dib rolled his eyes, "Friends also keep secrets for each other, Zim." He reminded him blandly.

"Right... Well, you may continue being my friend elsewhere. I require solitude now." Zim crossed his arms.

Dib smiled and nodded, "Okay. But, you know... Feel free to talk to me whenever you want. I'll be happy to listen."

Zim pointed to the door without responding, and Dib got the idea. He headed to the door, but before he opened it to leave, Zim quickly added, "I will, okay? And you can talk to me about your secrets or whatever you want too, and I won't tell anyone either..."

Dib smiled over his shoulder at him and nodded before heading out the door, but he didn't really think he'd ever take Zim up on that offer.

After all, Zim WAS his biggest secret...

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	9. Frankly Speaking

(( A.N. Okay people, check it out - I am NOT open to criticism, constructive or otherwise. Unless I specifically ask for it, do NOT supply it. I lead an extremely stressful life and my writing it supposed to be an outlet for stress relief. I am already fully aware that my writing sucks and since my writing is my purpose in life, when I'm reminded of how sucky my writing is, I'm reminded of how pointless my life also is, so please just DON'T, okay? If you have something not nice to say and feel you absolutely MUST say it, please at least do me the courtesy of sending it as an anonymous guest, so I can delete it and try to forget it instead of having to be reminded of it every time I check my reviews. If you have a question, please ask NICELY or I will just ignore it. PLEASE AND THANK YOU. I don't have to upload my stories for others to read, and people being rude to me makes me really not want to. Nobody needs to shower me with praise if you don't feel like I deserve it, but I fully admit that I am a very sensitive person who leads a very stressful life and gets depressed very easily, so PLEASE just be nice or hit the back button... ))

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As per usual, Zim and Yoogli avoided each other after the incident just as much as they had before it. But now Zim avoided conversation with anyone as much as possible, keeping himself busy around the ship. He worked so tirelessly he left almost nothing for the others to do, and overall he just hadn't been the same as he was before. Dib was worried about him, but he wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to remind him of the painful memories that were obviously the cause of his mopiness.

Two weeks later Zim announced they would have to stop for supplies before going any further, and headed course for a planet called Jokkis. Like Tegma, it was also primarily a merchant planet. But it was dinky, half the size of Earth, and it was not controlled by Irkens, but in fact it was cleverly hidden inside of a larger, hollowed-out moon to keep it that way. Holes were drilled into the moon to let the light of their star come in and ships go out, and the planet was suspended in the middle of the moon, held there by gigantic spools of spiderweb at the top.

Zim allowed Dib to accompany him this time as he headed out onto the shadowy planet. He wouldn't admit it but it was for his own protection - The locals, spider-like humanoids with six arms, red eyes, dark purplish-grey skin and sharp, jutting fangs, didn't trust or like Irkens. But they were small, the tallest among them being barely as tall as Zim, and Dib's height intimidated them into tolerating the newcomers.

Zim had gone up to one of the stalls, where a Jokki child was manning it, and picked out a canister of the special fuel his ship needed. A little bit went a long way, but it was three times as expensive as it would have been on Tegma, and Zim growled as he handed over most of the monies he had left. He had been planning on getting all kinds of supplies with the lottery he was supposed to have won, but now he sorely wished he had done his shopping before that debacle.

Dib watched him guiltily as he noticed how little Zim had left after the purchase, and as they walked away from the stall and back to the ship, he mentioned, "I'm sorry that operation you paid for cost so much... I promise I'll find some way to pay you back..." He'd already offered to carry the canister, which was just heavy enough for Zim to struggle slightly with, but no problem at all for the human to handle.

"You already told me that." Zim snipped back at him, then added more calmly, "It's fine. We had... Enough." He admitted begrudgingly. Then, he forced himself to look over at Dib and quietly also confessed, "Besides... We might not have gotten away without the help of your weird lekku and those new abilities it has..."

Dib nodded slowly, "Electrokinesis... It IS pretty cool. If only I knew how to control it. When it happened back there, it was pretty much just an emotional response, a big blow-out..."

"Well then LEARN to control it." Zim crossed his arms and walked on ahead of him.

As they headed back to the ship, Dib had noticed Zim was even more on edge than usual, and he stopped him just before they boarded the craft, knowing that Zim wouldn't be as comfortable speaking truthfully around Yoogli. "Hey, be honest, Zim... Are you okay?" He inquired deeply.

Zim knew full well what Dib was really trying to ask, and was just as reluctant to answer as Dib was to spit out the real question on his mind. "I'm fine." The alien answered stubbornly, but he could see right away that the human wasn't convinced. "I'm just... I dunno, stressed out, I guess..."

Dib nodded in understanding. Anyone would be 'stressed' after what Zim had been through. He wracked his big brain to think of something he could do for his friend, and he blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "I could give you a massage?"

Zim immediately turned and gave him a very surprised stare, which made the human blush. "What-?"

Dib hurried to explain himself, "Just a back massage! Strictly just to relieve the stress, of course! My dad, he sorta hired women to give me massages for my birthday a few times before..." It had always been pretty obvious what his father was hoping to accomplish by such a gesture. He was always pressuring Dib to be 'normal' - Study normal sciences, be a normal heterosexual. He might as well have gotten Dib a cake that said 'Get Laid'. It was pretty unnecessary besides - Dib admired the female form just as much as he did the male, but there was only ever one being that consistently held his attention.

Dib went on, scratching the back of his head awkwardly, "Anyways, I'm pretty sure I could replicate what they do, if you want. It seems simple enough..."

Zim was still staring at him, looking more than a little weirded out, and a bit disgusted. But it was actually in himself, for being so interested in and tempted by the human's strange, out-of-the-blue offer. Massages were one of the most expensive luxuries among Irkens, costing far more than the two hundred monies he'd spent on Dib's procedure. Usually only the tallest, most well-paid Irkens could afford it, as no Irken would touch another's bare skin with their bare hands without being paid handsomely for it.

On one hand, the prospect did sound somewhat icky, but on the other, Zim had heard from others that the experience was far more pleasurable than it sounded, and the more he tried to deny his temptation, the more his back and shoulders suddenly started to ache with the building stress, and he couldn't think of a good reason to -not- let the human pamper him, especially since he DID owe him. His face contorted several times between being grossed out and tempted until he finally exclaimed, "Oh - Fine! But not until Yoogli has gone to sleep, got it?"

Dib agreed, and they spent the next few hours avoiding each other's eyes until Yoogli had announced his fatigue and curled up in his usual spot, where GIR snuggled up next to him. Then Zim gestured with one claw for Dib to follow him back to his quarters.

"Do I need to remove my clothes? I'd rather not." Zim inquired with a raised brow. He already knew it was customary to do so, but he wasn't sure he could go through with it after all if Dib insisted on it. Even if he had already seen the most intimate parts of his body, he hadn't intended for him to and was more than a little self-conscious.

"No, it's fine." Dib replied reluctantly, hiding his disappointment. "I mean, I did when I got mine. It'd probably make it easier to get under the skin. But you don't need to if you really don't want to."

"I'm sure you'll be able to get under my skin just fine, Dib - You always have." He half-joked in return, laying down on his stomach in the middle of his bed. "And of course, if I tell you to stop, you will do so immediately or I'll scratch your eyes out." He added, not really serious, but not exactly joking either, as his PAK detached itself from his back and hovered over to rest at his nightstand.

"Of course, Zim." Dib replied, feigning boredom, then climbed onto the bed, sitting on his knees, which straddled each side of Zim's hips. Then he reached down and placed his palms gently on each side of the alien's smaller back, feeling the skin and bones beneath the fabric. They felt deceptively fragile, though Dib already knew they were not. Still, he was more tender than he was sure he needed to be at first, just in case.

Zim went still as Dib began, involuntarily tense while in the vulnerable position. But it wasn't long at all before Dib's soft fingers, which were rubbing small circles into his shoulders and upper back, careful to avoid the PAK's entry points, had him almost purring.

On his end, Dib was mindful to focus on what he was doing to Zim and not let himself get too worked up over it. But he couldn't deny how fascinated he was. How many times had he wished he could study the alien this close? Well, it was for completely different reasons, but it was still pretty cool.

After a few minutes had passed, Dib moved a hand to the back of Zim's neck, rubbing in circles on each side. Zim tensed up again, and Dib figured it was because the neck was such a vulnerable area. But the alien spoke up a moment later, "Remember not to touch my lekku..."

Dib's hand stilled. "I knew that already, Zim." He replied in a slightly annoyed sigh. "Yoogli taught me Irken manners as well as the language, remember."

"I'm just saying-" Zim began to growl.

But Dib cut him off, "I'M just saying, Zim - I wouldn't take advantage of you or anyone else like that." His hand stilled as a memory flashed in his mind, and hesitated for just a moment before he quietly admitted, "I know how it feels, okay. I wouldn't do it to someone else..."

Zim glanced over his shoulder at the human curiously, his eyes silently asking for an explanation. Dib hesitated again, silent at first, so Zim pressed him, "What do you mean...?" He then smacked Dib's hand away his neck, and turned around to face him.

Dib averted his eyes, stubbornly silent. He climbed off of Zim and sat on the edge of the bed, hands gripping his knees. "...Dwicky." He finally whispered.

"Dwicky?" Zim repeated, confused at first. "But, that was way back... When you were still just a smeet..."

Dib paused before he went on. He hadn't told anyone about this before, not even Gaz or his father. "...Yeah, I know. I was just a kid. A weird, messed-up kid who was desperate for attention..."

Anger and repulsion slowly began to rise up in Zim's spooch. "Is that what he told you? What did he DO-?"

Dib shook his head several times. "It's what I told myself. And he really didn't even do much, actually. Just held my hand, told me lies I wanted to believe, and..."

"...And?" Zim urged him on.

Dib swallowed at his throat. "...He asked me if I was gay. He told me it was okay if I was. I told him I didn't know. I was confused. I thought he believed me, I thought I could trust him and I liked him, so I... I kissed him." He confessed with a shudder. "I was just a kid, a really lonely, stupid kid. I didn't really know any better. But he DID, he should have-He should have pushed me away, but he didn't, he kissed me back. He asked me afterward if I was still confused. I told him no, and I thought I wasn't - I fell in love with that prick and then he went and told me he was lying about believing me the whole time, and left me behind like I was nothing..."

"He was scum." Zim replied immediately, getting up from his lying down position and sitting next to Dib. "But then again, it WAS kind of stupid for you to 'fall in love'," He put up his fingers in quotations and used the phrase in a derisive voice. "Seeing as how the practice ends badly virtually all the time."

Dib glared weakly at him, but he couldn't get too mad, since he was absolutely right. "Love always ends badly. Either you end up hating each other after a while or you really do find someone to love and they eventually die. It's not how it ends that makes it worth it. It's the time in between."

"Feh." Zim scoffed. "You really are SUCH a human..."

"What, you're telling me Irkens never fall in love?"

"Irkens may occasionally develop close bonds with another, but it is seen as a weakness by most. Caring too much for another distracts you from your work. Especially if the relationship becomes sexual, which as I've mentioned, is against the law unless it's officially approved."

Dib crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, "So what's the criteria for being approved for sex?"

"Being genetically capable of breeding superior smeets, of course. Both partners have to be fully Irken, at least one hundred and seventy centimeters tall, have no communicable diseases, no genetic defects, and the Irken that carries the smeet must be physically capable of the task."

"What about same-sex relationships?" Dib inquired further.

Zim gave him a flat-out 'duh' sort of expression. "If they aren't capable of reproducing, there would be no reason for them to even bother to apply for approval."

"Oh come on!" Dib suddenly exclaimed. "What about just doing it for FUN?"

"It's forbidden because it's a distraction, I already told you that! Besides," Zim made a face of disgust, sticking out his tongue. "What could possibly be so FUN about exchanging gross bodily fluids?"

Dib snorted out a laugh, his face going pink. "It's a LOT more fun than it sounds - It has to be, obviously, if it's so much of a 'distraction'. Trust me Zim, you guys are missing out..."

Zim's face also went slightly pink, but from anger. He didn't like not understanding things or being left out. "Disgusting Dib-worm! Just how MANY humans have you slobbered on like the Dwicky?"

Now Dib was miffed too, and his face went from pink to red. "Hey, not very many at all, thank you very much! Gretchen was the only other human I was ever intimate with!"

"The metal-mouthed beast? The one who looked sorta like your scary sister, only uglier?" Zim didn't bother to stifle his gag, and Dib felt more than a little sickened by the comparison as well. "But wait - She is female. So are you NOT 'gay'?"

Dib looked away and mumbled, "I'm kinda into both, okay..."

"Pffft!" Zim suddenly began to laugh, though there was a slight hint of nervousness beneath the mirth. "Come now, that's just ridiculous! Do you humans even have double-sexed individuals?"

Dib turned back and glared at him. "Actually we do! It's rare, but it happens. You just wouldn't know it because humans are so fixated on assigning gender to things. Blue is for boys, pink is for girls - It IS ridiculous really. So usually when an 'intersex' human is born, the parents usually force one gender or the other on the child instead of letting them decide for themselves. But it's not that I ONLY like people with BOTH sexes at once, I like both sexes just fine separately! Also..." He looked away again. "It's not really the sex I'm most concerned about in the first place. I really don't care what people have between their legs, what I'm most concerned about is if I like them for who they are, not WHAT they are..."

"So what was it you liked about Gretchen so much, that made you want to mate with her?" Zim went on, unashamed as usual.

"Oh for pete's sake-We didn't 'mate'! I mean, we didn't 'go all the way'." Zim looked visibly confused, so with a deep blush, Dib briefly explained, "We just, kinda, kissed, and uh... Used our hands..."

Dib rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and coughed, ignoring the grossed out glance Zim had directed at his hands - Clean freak... "And, I dunno, I guess I just kinda liked that she liked me... It wasn't a very good reason." He admitted.

"Ugh. Were you really that desperate for attention?"

"...Yeah, I was." Dib admitted quietly, several hidden emotions buried in his eyes.

Zim became quiet too, secretly a little ashamed of himself. That was unnecessarily cruel of him - Not that he'd ever worried about being too cruel before. But he couldn't ignore the sadness in Dib's voice, the deep, stinging pain he was obviously feeling but not showing. "...You shouldn't be. You're smarter, braver, and kinder than any other human I've ever met. You shouldn't settle for anyone, you deserve better than that - You ARE better than that. You should be with who you really want to be with."

Dib stared over at the shorter being for a long moment. Then finally he looked down again, and softly shook his head. "It's not always that simple. You can't always be with the one you really want to be with... But then," He amended, his mood slowly picking up again. "Sometimes it's enough to be there FOR them. If you really love a person, you'll want what's best for them. And sometimes that means never telling them how you really feel, if you know they could never feel the same way for you..."

Zim was as confused as ever. "What? That's dumb, Dib. Even dumber than usual. How could you know how the other person feels if you never tell them how you feel?"

After another long pause, Dib simply shrugged. "Do you feel less stressed now?" He asked, avoiding the last question.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, actually..." Zim reached behind and rubbed at his shoulders. He actually did feel significantly less stressed. "Thanks... But, of course, you'll have to do it a few more times before we're even." One massage was actually worth ten times what Zim had paid, but Dib didn't need to know that...

Dib cracked a grin. "Sure, anytime. Consider me your massage slave."

Zim grinned back at him. He liked the sound of that.

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	10. Every Dork Has His Day

(( A.N. I've been wanting to write this chapter for a while, hehe~ x3 Hope you guys are as amused by it as I am, and thank you for all the kind comments! ))

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Another few weeks passed, and the Dual Ship was coming near to the planet where Leevee's invitation had indicated the gathering to be located. It was a smaller-sized mud-ball with no official name, plenty of flora but relatively little fauna, most of it still in it's seas. It was hidden behind three moons which were all at least as large as the planet itself. Constantly rotating around it, one moon was always obscuring most of the view of the planet, as well as providing adequate shade from the nearest sun, which was a brilliant emerald color, and cast an eerie green glow upon the mostly green planet.

Zim landed close to the coordinates indicated, parking the ship a few miles away from the beach of a gorgeous hunter-green sea. In the distance there were rows upon rows of hills and mountains, somewhere in which the gathering was supposed to be held. The air was breathable, so they left their helmets behind as they began their hike, as well as Orby, who was keeping GIR on a literal short leash while they were gone.

They crossed over several of the mossy hilltops until they came to a plain of tall grass (nearly as tall as Zim) at the bottom of the largest mountainside. In the midst of the plain, a temporary dwelling had been constructed, covered with the grass and moss to camouflage it with all the surrounding greenery.

It took a few minutes to find the cleverly hidden entrance, but they eventually came across a patch of the building that sported a tiny window, for peeking at newcomers. Yoogli stepped forward and knocked hesitantly. No one answered at first, and Yoogli was about to try to knock again, but Zim got impatient and banged on the door himself.

A rather tall and broad Irken with squinty orange eyes opened the door. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" He demanded gruffly.

Dib had donned his Irken disguise for the occasion, but there were a few changes made this time. His lekku had become slightly more rigid in the past few weeks since the procedure and could no longer be taped down without his discomfort, so they ditched the fake two lekku and just let the real one be. He had also insisted on brown-colored contacts this time, saying that he wanted to be more like himself just this once. Since this gathering was apparently forbidden anyways, Zim had reluctantly agreed to let him.

Dib spoke up for the group, since Yoogli was too shy and intimidated by the much bigger Irken and Zim was likely to get them turned away with his attitude, "Our friend Yoogli got an invitation from his friend Leevee, he said he could come and that he could bring guests."

The bigger Irken raised a brow, then with a sigh he replied simply, "Wait."

He closed the door behind him and disappeared for a few moments. When the door opened again, a semi-tall female Irken with blood-red eyes, dark olive skin and a zig-zag lekku, opened the door first, "Alright, who are you and what kind of sick joke do you think you're pulling?!" She demanded.

Dib couldn't help but stare at her. She looked very much like most other Irkens he'd ever seen, except, to his great surprise, she had a pair of breasts, albeit very small ones, complete with nipples that were sticking out from beneath the thin fabric of her red tunic. He tried to remember his manners and not stare, though - Especially since the female was already displeased with them being there at all.

But then another, shorter Irken, only two or three inches taller than Yoogli, pushed his way past the moody female. This one had a much lighter, pale-mint colored skin tone, candy cane-shaped lekku, and big, bright, sky blue eyes. His eyes went even bigger at the sight of Yoogli, and they very quickly filled up with fat blue tears.

Yoogli tried to give him a smile through the emotions that were quickly overtaking him too. "Leevee, it's me, do you remember? It's me, Yoo-"

"YOOGLI!" The blue-eyed Irken suddenly cried, rushing forward and throwing his arms around the smaller Irken. He hugged him tight for a few seconds, and then he pulled back, stared into Yoogli's face for a moment, to make absolutely sure, before swooping down and capturing the surprised little Irken's lips in a firm kiss.

Leevee's eyes were the only ones that hadn't gone completely wide, his were scrunched shut. After a short pause, the red-eyed female began to laugh. "Leevee! I think that sip of wine might have gone to your head!"

Embarrassed, Leevee pulled back after that, a blue blush dusting his cheeks. "I'm so sorry Yoogli, I just-"

Yoogli immediately shook his head, the corner of his lips curling up. "No, it's okay! It's REALLY okay!" He was full-out grinning now.

Leevee glanced shyly back at the two behind him, deciding to change the subject before things got too awkward. "And you brought others with you too - Wait. ZIM?" Leevee's smile fell and he took an involuntary step back. "Uuuh - Shala?" Leevee looked back at his female companion, his blue eyes begging for her help.

She stepped forward, staring hard at the newcomers. But before Zim could give her any attitude, Yoogli rushed to explain, "They saved me! I was trapped in a completely different dimension for years, and they found me and brought me back. Dib here has been especially kind to me." He pointed out with a smile at the human hybrid. "And, uh, yeah, Zim helped too." He added reluctantly. "He brought Dib with him." This was said a little more charitably.

Zim glared at the shorter Irken and crossed his arms. "Are we welcome or not?"

Shala glared right back at him, her lip curling in distaste. "...Alright, Zim, Dib - You two can stay. But I am warning you right now, Zim! I'm only letting YOU in because you helped out our fellow comrade, and because of the work you did for Tallest Red that one time. This gathering is for Irkens and allies who side with Tallest Red and are against Tallest Purple's new agenda, which is probably something you'll want to hear about. BUT, you'd BETTER be on your best behavior while you're here, or I personally will kick your ass out! Got it?!" She snarled, bending down to look Zim right in the eye.

He averted his eyes to the side, avoiding the fierce female's alcohol-laden breath. "Fine!"

She gave him one last glare before motioning them to follow her inside, explaining along the way as they walked down a long hallway, "You guys just missed the opening speech that was given, so I'll fill you in. As you know, Red has been trying to keep the peace with Purple for years, and until earlier this year, it was going as well as could be expected. Purple was content to stay out of the politics and let Red handle things as long as we kept him pampered and spoiled. But things have changed now. Purple used to be intimidated by Red, but he's been getting bolder lately, and more vocal about his opinions on the superiority of sexless Irkens. And then just last year, he started a new 'identification campaign', forcing everyone to provide physical proof of their sexes. So far he's been insisting it's ONLY for identification purposes, but we all know better..."

"It's what they said the last time it happened..." Leevee added, walking next to Yoogli with his arm linked with the shorter Irken's. "But even if it was for identification only, it's still a terrible thing to inflict on a fellow Irken. Forcing me to show them was the most horrible thing I've been through since the last time it happened, when I had to cut myself..."

"Right..." Shala agreed sympathetically, "So, in secret, Red has been assembling his most loyal followers to enact a counter-measure, and we all came here tonight to meet one another, discuss our plans, and have a good time. We probably won't get another chance to do so for a while, if ever again..."

"Is Tallest Red here too?" Zim inquired eagerly, still wanting to see him even though Red obviously wanted nothing more to do with Zim.

The female shook her head, "No, he can't be seen outwardly supporting us. If Purple were to find out about it, it could severely compromise our plans."

"And what ARE those plans?" Zim pressed.

"It's on a need-to-know basis - And YOU don't need to know." Shala growled back him, stopping for a second to look him in the eyes again. "Listen Zim, we all know you're loyal to Red - But there's nothing more you can do for him. You did your part and you were almost executed for it. Don't tempt fate, because you won't get away with it again. We're taking care of Red's agenda now, so just stay out of it. Stick around and have some nachos or whatever and then just get out of here, okay?"

Zim was silently seething, but he remained quiet. He refused to admit it out loud, or even fully to himself, but she was right. Purple was already wary of him, that was why he was trying to get rid of him...

Shala then turned her attention towards Dib, who hadn't been able to resist taking another glance or three at her unusual anatomy - Because, science. Of course. "And you - Dib, was it? Will you quit -staring-? I know you're looking at them - Have you never seen another Irken Hybrid before?"

Dib blushed deeply and averted his eyes. "I-I'm so sorry. But, well, not really. I just learned I was an Irken Hybrid a pretty short while ago. I've only seen one other." Not much of an excuse since his own species had breasts too, he mentally scolded himself. And actually, he reminded himself as well, it was more like two. Except, he'd never seen his sister's true form before. How weird, he thought, to have known a person your whole life and not know what they really look like...

She gave him a stern look, but then she suddenly grinned. "They're pretty awesome, don't you think? Other Irkens have been teasing me about them ever since I got them, but I LIKE them!"

Dib's eyes went a little wide and he put on a nervous smile. Complimenting a female on her breasts wasn't usually considered polite, but Shala seemed proud of them, so why leave her hanging? "Oh, uh, yeah, they're pretty cool..." He answered awkwardly.

Her grin stretched even further at his praise, and she reached over and gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. "There's a few other Hybrids here too, you should meet them. No one here cares if you're unofficial. Almost everyone here has been treated like an outcast for one reason or another. So come on - Time to meet your missing link!"

Shala continued to lead them through the hallway until they reached another door, and just beyond that door, they headed into a much larger room, where a crowd of various Irkens, Hybrids, and even a handful of Vortians had assembled. To one side of the room was a large table with various kinds of snacks. Some of them familiar-looking, like the nachos and donuts, but some of them decidedly not - Dib held his tongue in cheek as he watched one hungry Irken grab a handful of what looked like bright green worms, and chomp them down.

To the back of the room was a stage, and there were four Irkens up on it, fiddling with miniature computers that were hanging around their necks, which produced a somewhat bland kind of techno beat. In the middle of the room, a handful of the bravest Irkens were attempting to dance to it, although it was clear that not a one of them had very much practice with the art, if any at all. Mostly they were just kicking their legs and waving their arms, and Dib had to bite his bottom lip to politely keep from laughing at their comical motions.

Shala noticed and she nudged him. "Can YOU dance, comrade?"

"Um..." Dib paused, not quite sure how to answer that. In all honesty, his father had sent him to a few formal dancing classes before, as every once in a while he was expected to attend a fancy gala of some sort or another with him, and dance with some other distinguished man's daughter. He'd learned well and was actually rather graceful if he was trying to be - After all, it simply wouldn't do to step on the toes of the daughter of a senator or an ambassador.

He was about to lie and tell her 'Not really', but Zim spoke up before him. "Hah! Dib, dance? If you want something to make you laugh, I suppose. What was that terrible move they made you do in gym class, the 'Chicken'? Yes, do that one, Dib!" He smirked.

Dib glared deeply down at the magenta-eyed twerp. "That was gym class you jerk, all the dances they make you do in there are dumb! I can dance better than that!" He exclaimed heatedly.

Shala crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly. "Oh? Well then show us!"

Dib's cheeks burned. Man he hated being put on the spot like that. He couldn't take back his words now, but he wasn't about to make a fool of himself, BY himself. "Alright then Shala, how about you dance with me?" He asked her in a challenging tone.

She blinked owlishly in surprise and more than a little confusion. "Dance... WITH you? How do you dance WITH someone else...?"

Now it was Dib's turn to smirk. He held out a hand to her and bowed his head slightly. "Care to find out?"

Too curious to resist, Shala took his hand, and Dib immediately pulled her in close against his chest, placing her other hand on his shoulder and his spare hand on her waist. Then he pulled her out to the middle of the dance-floor, and began to sway and twirl with her.

The other Irkens moved out of their way, staring, mesmerized by the exciting new display. The music-makers on stage briefly stopped to watch them, their music tapering off for a moment before they started it back up again, adjusting their tune to better match the new form of dance, the beat was now more of a melody.

Shala, normally a very bold, take-charge kind of individual, was so shocked by this stranger and his lovely new form of dance, that she followed his lead without question, her eyes wide and her mouth just slightly ajar. Suddenly, Dib grasped her waist firmly, and dipped her down. She gasped and grabbed the back of his shirt, almost thinking he was about to drop her. But when she realized that he hadn't, her mouth stretched into a wide smile, and when he pulled her back upright again, she giggled excitedly. "Comrade!" She exclaimed, her tone somewhat accusing, but mostly amused.

He winked before bringing her back up, finally ending the dance with a slight bow of his head. Shala did not return the bowing gesture, too proud for it, but she grinned big at him. "That was amazing, Dib!"

Suddenly three other females from the crowd rushed over to Dib. The first to reach him had eyes the color of pure pink rose petals, and skin that was almost the same shade as Zim's, a light but also slightly ashen lime green, hers was just slightly less ashen and a bit more lime-y. Her antennae was curled into a perfect spiral at the end, and Dib could tell even without the jealous stares he was getting from several of the males, that she was considered extremely beautiful. "I'm Meg! Dance with me next, Dib!"

Next to her there was a just slightly taller, thinner female with teal green eyes who added quickly, "Bri would be honored to dance with you too!" And next to her a somewhat short and pudgy purple eyed Irken girl chimed in, "Oh, me too, please!"

Zim watched with wide, slowly-stricken eyes as Meg, not only the prettiest Irken in the room by far, but also the Irken who was voted the last three cycles in a row to be the most lovely of all Irkens (leave it to Red to have the Irken equivalent of a supermodel in his entourage) fawned over Dib as if he were the greatest thing since sugar itself. And not just her, every other Irken in the room was crowding around him, telling him how great he was. Nothing in all his life had ever felt quite this wrong - Everything he'd ever wanted most in his life, praise and adoration from his people, DIB was getting it...?

Dib, a big smile on his face and his heart full of elation, had started to sway with Meg, when he noticed Zim in the corner of his eyes. He was turning and walking away back towards the entrance/exit door, his lekku lowered, looking downright miserable. At first Dib was almost as bitter as Zim that he couldn't just be happy for him, but the human quickly realized why he of course couldn't be, and felt kind of bad for him. He slowly stopped swaying with Meg and gave her an apologetic glance. "Sorry, I have to tend to something..." He explained to her briefly, then let go of her hands and walked away from the crowd.

The other Irkens let him when they realized who he was going after, and he caught up with Zim just as he was heading out the door. "Zim, wait." He called softly, ducking inside of the door just before it closed, leaving the two of them in the hallway alone.

Zim turned and glared harshly at him. "What? Were you not enjoying yourself back there, Dib? Finally being the center of attention, isn't that what you always wanted? So why don't you just have one of your new friends drive you back home, I'm sure they'd be SO honored-"

Dib interrupted him there, "Okay, seriously Zim? Shut the fuck up for a minute. I WAS enjoying myself, thank you very much, until you started getting all pouty about it. But no, I can't continue to be happy if my BEST FRIEND is miserable! Don't you - Do you SERIOUSLY not know? Come on." He lowered his voice and spoke more softly now. "Zim, you have always been... And always WILL be... My absolute favorite alien."

He stared into Zim's magenta eyes. "So, if you really want to go, we can, because I'm going with you... But wouldn't you rather come back and dance with me?" He asked, holding out his hand.

Zim stared at him, a flurry of overwhelming emotions inside of him. It hadn't exactly been what he was mad about to begin with, but somehow it made it feel better that Dib, who had every reason to want to enjoy his newfound respect and popularity, cared more about Zim, how he felt and what he wanted. That out of all the Irkens in the room, all the prettier, stronger, smarter, taller Irkens, Zim was the one that meant the most to him, even after how shabbily he had treated him.

For one of the very few times in his life, Zim felt ashamed of himself. But it was nothing compared to how glad he was to have Dib feel that way. "I... Yes." He finally admitted quietly, taking Dib's hand. "I would like that..."

Dib curled his fingers around Zim's smaller palm, and led him back into the main room. The dance floor was now more crowded than before, with Irkens pairing up with each other to imitate Dib's dancing. They moved out of the way when Dib emerged again with Zim in tow, staring as he placed Zim's arms around his waist, and put his around Zim's shoulders. Then he began to simply rock the two of them from side to side, staring in Zim's eyes all the while.

Zim stared back, his expression unreadable. Neither of them cared, but both of them could hear the others speaking about them.

"He's dancing with ZIM?"

"Well, nobody's perfect."

"No kidding. Tall and handsome and a good dancer - Of course his beautiful big head would have to be crazy, too..."

Normally Dib would say something about that, but he couldn't bring himself to care enough right now. He led Zim around the room in his semi-embrace, the two of them simply enjoying each other's presence. But after a while, Shala cut in, poking Dib on the shoulder.

"Hey, Dib, you should try some of this!" She offered, motioning to a tray that a shorter, red eyed Irken was holding up for them. On the tray there were several shot-glasses full of a strange-looking liquid. It seemed to go back and forth from a deep burgandy color and a dark emerald green. Shala explained, "It's Vortian wine - And let me tell you, those Vortians do NOT fuck around with their wine!" She giggled.

Dib had stolen from his dad's stash at home a couple times before, so he shrugged, thinking it couldn't be much worse than that, and took a shot for himself and one for Zim. Handing the second glass to him, he held up his own and clinked it before putting the rim to his lips and sending it to the back of his throat.

He almost spat it back out, but he clamped his hand over his lips and forced himself to gulp it down, his eyes watering as the extremely bitter fluid burned it's way down his throat. Shala hadn't been kidding - His father didn't even buy liquor that wasn't at least 80 proof. This had to be at least twice as strong as that, if not more.

"Oh man..." Dib coughed, his stomach turning as he handed the empty glass back. But it wasn't very long before it settled, his body began to feel warm, and he started to giggle as he looked over at Zim. He hadn't yet drank from his glass, and was still looking at it uncertainly. "Y'know, Zim, on second thought, maybe you shouldn't - That stuff is REALLY strong..."

Zim glared at him, taking it as a challenge. "Zim is stronger!" He exclaimed before taking the shot. He too had to hold his mouth to keep from spitting it out, his eye twitching as he forced himself to swallow it. Once he had, a shudder went through his body and he stuck out his serpentine tongue in disgust.

Dib snorted, holding back a laugh as he asked, "Do you feel okay, Zim...?"

Zim was quiet for a minute, but then he suddenly started to grin, and took Dib by the hand, "I feel like dancing some more!" He exclaimed, dragging the human back out onto the middle of the dance floor.

Dib grinned and followed him, this time taking one of Zim's hand's in his, and putting the other behind his shoulder. Zim followed suit and put his spare hand on Dib's lower back, and then Dib began to lead them into a spin, going in circles anywhere there was room to go.

They danced until they were dizzy, and then Dib led them back to some chairs on the outer edges of the room to rest. Shala came back, this time holding the tray of drinks herself. It had three shots left on it, and she took one for herself, gulping it down quickly before sitting down next to Dib. "Hey, want one more? Us bigger, taller Irkens can usually handle two!"

Dib was tempted, but he wasn't sure he ought to. But then Zim reached over him and took one of the two remaining drinks. "Zim is tall, so he can handle another!" He declared arrogantly, gulping it down before anyone could protest.

Well, he couldn't let the twerp outdrink him. So Dib took the last shot and poured it down his gullet, swallowing it with just barely a bit more ease now that he knew what to expect. Zim then announced that he was hungry, and headed over to the snack table. Dib decided that he could go for a bite himself, and followed him there.

He tried one of their donuts first. It was a simple ring of fried sugary bread, they had no glaze or anything inside of them. Not bad at all, but not particularly interesting. So Dib decided to try a nacho next. The chips looked and tasted similar enough to a corn or potato chip, though they were made from some other kind of starch. The sauce looked like your standard orange nacho cheese sauce, so that's what Dib assumed it was at first. But when it hit his tongue, instead of the salty cheesy goodness he was expecting, the sauce turned out to be extremely sweet instead, and tasted like a weird mix of something like caramel, peanut butter, and just a hint of coffee.

Because it was unexpected it didn't taste so great at first, but Dib gave it another try with a more open mind, and it wasn't as bad. Then he tried covering one of the simple donuts in the sweet sauce, and although a few Irkens gave him extemely odd looks for it, the fried ring actually tasted better to him like that.

The starches settled his stomach, although his body still felt plenty warm and giddy, and he got thirsty after that. There was a punch bowl, and he filled a cup and drank it down, tasting some kind of berry flavor. He was about to fill another cup when Zim staggered over from munching on some white candy sticks, about to do the same. Dib politely let him go first.

But Zim reached down so fast, he hit the edge of the bowl and tipped it over off the side of the table. The juice and fragments of the bowl went all over the floor with a loud crash, and after that silence reigned and everyone stared.

Zim stared silently too. At first. Then, "PFFFFT-HAHAHAHA!"

Dib rubbed his forehead in amazement, embarrassed for the both of them. He was definitely more than a little tipsy himself, but man, Zim was freaking hammered. Obviously Zim wasn't tall enough to handle that second shot after all...

Shala tapped him on the back of his shoulder, mirroring his expression as she whispered, "Hey, Dib, it's been a blast - But can you do us all a huge favor and get him out of here before he breaks something else?"

He grinned apologetically and nodded, coming up behind Zim and gently pushing him away from the scene and towards the exit. Still giggling madly, Zim let him.

Dib overheard some Irkens commenting as they left, "He was pretty cool, don't you think?"

"Yeah, totally cool!"

"Cool, but definitely crazy! I mean, being buddies with ZIM is one thing, but did you SEE what he did to that donut...?"

Dib laughed it off and headed through the exit, where he discovered Yoogli and Leevee hiding behind the other side, locked in a passionate kiss, their worm-like tongues wrigling around each other. Zim and Dib both couldn't help but stare for a moment, and feeling their stares, Yoogli and Leevee looked up with a blush, and parted.

Yoogli coughed awkwardly. "Oh, uh, hey guys! LISTEN - Leevee has been kind enough to offer to let me cruise with him in his ship from here on out, so, I'm gonna go with him now! But, really..." He added sincerely, taking both of their hands and squeezing them. "Thank you guys for everything."

Zim took his hand back and rolled his eyes as he wobbled down the hall. "Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

Dib briefly squeezed his hand in return and nodded with a big smile. Then he left them behind and went after Zim, taking one of his arms and putting it around his neck to help keep him steady as they headed back towards their ship.

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	11. A Mighty Need

(( A.N. This chapter is kinda short but I think you guys'll like it, hehe~ xP And just to warn ya, I wouldn't exactly call this a 'lemon' (lol, or should I?) but it's definitely, uh... Citrus-y? A hint of lime? Bah, just read it. XD;; ))

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Zim was still unsteady on his feet and giggling like a loon by the time they got back to the ship. Once they were safely inside, Dib led him to his chair by the dashboard, and afterward he plopped down into his own. Zim grinned and spinned around in his swivel chair a few times. "Sooo, where to now, Dib?"

Dib laughed softly under his breath and shook his head. "Zim, you're not even supposed to drive a car when you're drunk, let alone a SPACE SHIP." He pointed out fairly. "Lets just stay here a few hours until we've sobered up. We don't want to drive into -another- black hole, after all."

"Feh, fine. But what do you want to do until then? Zim is booored!" He complained.

"I dunno." Dib replied with a shrug. "I'm pretty good, honestly. That was... Actually, probably one of the most amazing nights of my life." He admitted, his lips stretching into the biggest grin ever.

"Reeeally..." Zim got up from his chair on slightly shaky legs, and then he leaned over Dib's seat, balancing himself on the armrests. "I think I know a way to make it better..."

Dib had raised an eyebrow and was about to ask him how, but then out of nowhere, Zim had leaned down and pressed his lips harshly against Dib's. The human's eyes went wide and the rest of him went still, unable to believe what was happening at first. The kiss was sloppy and demanding, it was more than obvious that Zim had no experience with what he was doing, but that wasn't what Dib was most concerned about anyways.

Still, even if it was strange and unexpected, it was also too good to deny, and though he felt guilty about it, Dib allowed himself to enjoy the sensation for just a few seconds. A few seconds ended up turning into a moment or so, but when Zim decided to settle down on Dib's lap, he knew he had to end it then or he might not still be able to later. He quickly but gently pushed Zim away and pulled back himself with a gasp, "Zim, wait, stop. We shouldn't do this." He tried to protest weakly.

"Zim wants to..." The Irken protested back with half-lidded eyes.

Dib raised an eyebrow at him, "Okay, so, WHY do you want to?"

Zim shrugged lazily and averted his eyes. "Yoogli and Leevee were doing it, and Zim thought it looked fun..."

Simple curiosity, huh? It was kind of cute, and Dib was sorely tempted to indulge him, but he wasn't drunk enough himself to know that it wasn't right. "Come on Zim, stop and think about it for a moment. If you were sober would you still be doing or saying these things?"

Zim paused for just a second, "...Mmm, no... But I'd still be thinking and feeling them..." He admitted hazily.

Dib's brow shot upwards. Obviously Zim would never admit that either if he was sober, but he couldn't help but press for just a bit more information while he still had the chance. "...W-What do you feel about me...?"

"...It... It's stronger than hate..." Zim answered vaguely, in barely more than a whisper.

Dib stared intensely at him, stricken silent for a moment. His heart was pounding so fast and hard he could feel the beat throughout his entire body. Everything else was so quiet except for that, his own drumming pulse in his ears. But then Zim began to lean down again, and Dib quickly turned his head away and insisted, "We CAN'T, Zim. We both know that in the morning you'll hate me again, and you'll probably hate me even more if I do this, so-"

"DIB." Zim suddenly interrupted him with a growl, grabbing both of the human's shoulders and looking him right in the eye. He took a steely breath and answered very evenly, "I swear I will not..."

Again, Dib stared silently for a few seconds, thinking - Zim would sometimes speak about himself as himself, but sometimes he spoke about himself as if he were another being. Dib used to chalk it up as an alien idiosyncrasy, but he'd come to believe it was more unique to Zim personally, as a response to how his people so often treated him. He'd been referring to himself as 'Zim' more than usual since he'd taken his first shot earlier in the evening, but the way he'd spoken his last words, acknowledging himself as being in control of his actions and desires, Dib just knew it was different.

Still, he wasn't completely convinced just yet. "Do you even know... WHAT you want...? I mean, do you just want to kiss, or...?" Dib asked, more curious and tempted than he'd ever been in his life.

Zim's cheeks filled with color. He was sitting with his legs on either side of one of Dib's. The only thing between that leg and his genitals was their clothing, and Zim was abruptly very aware of that. Suddenly overtaken by a rare bout of shyness, Zim buried his head against Dib's collar. "I don't... I'm not sure, I just..." He suddenly growled out his frustration and admitted, "I have A MIGHTY NEED...!"

Dib groaned weakly, his composure slipping. Well, there was only one thing left to do, to see if Zim really meant it or not. "Can I..." He began, just as shyly, "I mean - May I, touch your lekku...?" Surely Zim wouldn't agree to that if he didn't really, totally trust him... Dib hoped so anyways.

Zim's face was now almost as pink as it was green, seriously considering his request. It was definitely a scary prospect to say the least, but he was every bit as tempted as Dib was. So he dug his face in further against the crook of Dib's neck and finally whispered, "...Y-Yes..."

Dib took a deep breath and let it out. "W-Well... Okay..." He relented after just the slightest hesitation.

Slowly he wrapped his arms around Zim's back, pulling him into a loose embrace. Then he slid his hands up Zim's back, over his shoulders and neck and finally behind his head. Zim was already starting to shiver before Dib had even touched the appendages, but when Dib suddenly grasped them by the base with his thumbs and index fingers, his shiver turned into a strong shudder, and Zim gasped sharply against his shoulder.

Zim had touched his own lekku before, but only when he was itchy or using them to detect something, never with these kinds of intentions. It was a completely different sensation to have another person's hands on the most sensitive area of his body. Those warm, fleshy, human finger-pads of his rubbed in small circles around the sensitive base of his rigid but pliant lekku, immediately sending shock-waves of endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin coursing through his body. It was strongest in his brain, his neck, spine and genitals, but Zim could feel it all the way down to the tips of his toes and finger claws, which he dug into Dib's forearms without thinking about it.

"Uhn..." The alien groaned against the crook of Dib's neck, his thighs instinctively squeezing around Dib's thigh. Dib gasped a little then too at the feel of Zim's quickly growing erection, the member writhing against him like a creature with a mind of it's own, and beneath that, he could swear he could feel a bit of moisture starting to spread on his jeans. Zim hadn't been kidding about these things being super sensitive...

Of course, Zim wasn't -not- paying attention to his genitals either, and was hyper-aware of how almost painfully hard he was. That sensation alone was almost completely new, save for a few times Zim had willfully chosen to forget about, as they were all memories concerning Dib too, mostly during his late high school days when he had gone through his final dramatic growth spurt and had finally gotten his hideous acne under control. But the deep ache he could feel inside of himself, the strange dichotomy of burning like fire and gushing fluids, out of the forbidden place that he'd always beforehand associated only with pain, that was definitely, completely new, and unexpectedly enjoyed.

Then Dib began to slowly slide his fingertips up the lekku, and Zim could feel his eyes begin to roll and his toes begin to curl. He could barely manage to breathe enough to keep himself from passing out from the overwhelming ecstasy, and the further down Dib went, the higher Zim got.

When he finally reached the tip, where the slight kink at the end seemed to contain another bundle of extra nerves, Zim stopped breathing altogether for a moment as Dib began to rub the ends between his fingers, just like he had done to the base. Zim wasn't able to believe it could get any more intense than that, until the hybrid suddenly slipped his fingertips back down to the base again in a quick but steady motion.

"AAHHH-DIB!" The alien howled, then quickly clamped his teeth down on the hybrid's neck to silence himself, while his hips rocked against Dib's thigh involuntarily. Dib gasped loudly in return from both the bruising pain in his neck and the almost-but-not-quite-orgasmic thrill he was experiencing everywhere else from feeling and hearing and seeing Zim in the throes of his very first release.

Dib didn't mind how hard he was squeezing and rubbing against his thigh, but Zim didn't stop biting until it hurt too much for Dib to continue to ignore, so he finally nudged his shoulder against his mouth and mumbled, "Ow, Zim, let off..."

Barely aware, Zim let his teeth scrape off of the deeply bruised skin and then settled his mouth against it with one last fading moan. The alien had never been as exhausted in his entire life as he was now, with the last ebb of his first orgasm pulsing through his body. His erratic breathing slowly began to calm into relieved sighs, and mindlessly Zim settled his tired head against Dib's shoulder as sleep began to demand itself from him.

Dib felt the alien go slack against him, and knew that was what had happened. "Oh geez, Zim..." He rolled his eyes, but he was smiling too. The little jerk was as selfish as ever, but Dib was actually okay with it just this once. The Irken had already been woozy from the alcohol, but having your very first sexual release would knock anyone out for the night. Besides, it might have been the first time Zim had ever experienced orgasm, but it was far from the first time he'd ever made Dib feel hopelessly frustrated by the end of the night. So he reluctantly resigned himself to it, taking his hands back from the now temporarily limp lekku and sliding them halfway down Zim's back, where they then rested.

"Hope you don't hate me in the morning, because you won't get rid of me so easily now..." Dib whispered with a smirk as he fell asleep holding his best friend.

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Dib and Zim both awoke rudely the next morning to the sound of someone banging on the hatch door of the ship. Groggy from sleep and the remaining alcohol in their system, they assumed it was someone from the party, or maybe Yoogli had forgotten something.

Without a word yet to Dib, Zim climbed off the human's lap with a blush. He had not forgotten the memories of the night before, but he wasn't ready to speak of it just yet. Instead he headed to the hatch, and curious about who it was, Dib followed after him.

"Ugh, what is it-" Zim began to demand, rubbing his aching head as the door rose. But he went dead silent in an instant, and soon Dib saw why.

At least fifty unfamiliar Irkens were waiting outside of their ship, with laser guns aimed at their heads. Dib blinked in surprise, and then yawned as about twenty or so of those little red dots were pointed directly at his big head. "Well, this is a shitty way to start the day..."

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(( A.N. BTW, I just wanted to note, I know it is totally nooooot right at all to have sex with someone when they're completely incapable of making informed decisions, lets get that clear. But I tried to get the point across that although he was drunk, it's something Zim really did want too, and Dib was trying his absolute best to make sure he wasn't taking advantage of him. And, well, considering how many IZ fics contain all-out, no-lines-blurred, actual, undeniable -rape-, well, just go easy on me about this one - I really wanted the boys to have a good time before all the drama I'm about to put them through... XD Hope you enjoyed! ))


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